Trees and Bicycles!

I was booked recently to work with MaxOperandi and his friend Jules, on the grounds of Ian's friend's incredible country house. Despite Jules' already accomplished portfolio, this was her first introduction to nude figure work and we worked exclusively with natural light (the weather was beautiful!! No shivering necessary!) and reflectors. I think these are some fantastic natural images, and along with Ian's vintage bicycle (I also spent time up in a tree house, standing in a water feature and balancing in branches, which left me with bad scratches which miraculously disappeared somehow the next day!), there is a very 'darling buds of May' feel to this sunny set, which I love! I always wanted to be Mariette. :-)

 (There is a serious waist-hip ratio going on above; I wasn't sure if it was flattering at first, but I decided I like it. :-))

Let me know if you have a favourite!

Veils

Hello!

The busyness continues and I've had some brilliant shoots recently at Eye for An Image Studio, with my partner in crime Ivory Flame, the results of which have been popping up in various places, much to our excitement! I'll hopefully show lots of those shots soon, and also have roughly 11 million shots queueing up anyway to be blogged, which I can't wait to display here. I'm also hoping to be back at the studio for a day sometime this summer. Brilliantly, I have now managed to work out how to exit the (thoroughly straightforward) car park (at the business park where the studio's located) without first driving endlessly around in circles. I am such a total idiot. Especially as once I managed to go out the way I had initially come in (genius! And only once rescued and guided by Martyn Davis, the studio owner, who after saying our goodbyes found my confident veering off in the 100% wrong direction a little odd), I then tried to drive the wrong way down a one-way road. All still without having left the business park (thankfully; no one else was around to particularly inflict my idiocy on). There are no words for how ridiculous I am.

Shaking our heads and moving on... Tomorrow I'm off to Dublin for three nights for some outdoor landscape nudes - pleeeeeaaase can the weather stay this good? Today I tore myself away from admin/packing/general guilt and apologies for being behind on emails (as much I try, and trust me, I really do, I am never quite on top of things) to go for lunch at an Oxfordshire pub by the river, watching the punts go by.... bliss!

These four shots were taken by Stephen Phillips at Barrie Spence's studio in Livingston during my tour to Scotland earlier this month. Editor-in-Chielf of Parasitology and Partick Thistle Supporter, Stephen has led a very interesting life so far, contributing to the research of diseases such as malaria, and was very nervous before our shoot, he said, but I think these shots are lovely!

Tulips and Me!

OK, supposed to be going out now and running late - I am so busy at the moment, and recent shoots have involved being up tree houses, riding a vintage sit-up-and-beg bicycle, posing in water, being a bride (today!), balancing in trees... I'm definitely feeling at the upper limit of my comfortable level of modelling busyness at the moment, with hardly a day off, but you'll notice I remain a blogging addict. There are so many beautiful shots coming in my inbox - I love it! But yeah, I'm keeping this post briefer than planned.

On the way to my shoot with Jan Doef in Holland, my jaw dropped at these daffodil fields and Jan kindly suggested we pull over so I could take some photos! Sooooooooo beautiful!!! I'd never seen anything like this before.

Tulips:

Me:

 

I think Jan did a brilliant job on the black and white figure nudes in particular - luscious smooth lighting!

Over and out for now!

Lioness Lightplay

This was such a fun shoot. Neil Snape's photography, specialising in fashion and beauty, is exquisite, and I admit I felt a bit nervous to be shooting with someone whose day job involves shooting world-renowned fashion models for world-renowned products and campaigns, but when in Paris...

Neil is so passionate and joyful about the possiblities of lighting in this mirror project, and was a delight to work with. He has since told me he is having trouble choosing final edits as they are all so special. *ego boost*!! Although a far cry from being a supermodel in height/measurements, apparently I'm alright... ;-) I've seen a couple more shots from this session already so far, but will post more another time, as soon as possible. Thanks Neil!

I just find this shot so stunning; the warmth and fiery glow, and the hunter pose...

Fairy Paintings

I was booked recently at Paul's Studio by an artist wishing to begin a project he'd had in his mind for a while. Philip Malpass will be painting 4-6 large canvasses by sometime next year, from which prints will be made available through a new site devoted to fairy art. Meanwhile he is making a series of minipanels which will eventually be sold via small galleries. I feel very lucky and happy to have been chosen for this project, and think the two panels below (digital files won't do them justice, I'm told and can well believe, but nevermind) are absolutely stunning! So magical!

Although Philip has been painting all his life, he has had a six year break until recently, so this project is hugely exciting for him and a creative release! We had a lot of fun in the studio, with me interpreting 'fairyness' by way of flitting and jumping, perching and skitting about as though flying and journeying between flowers and trees... :-) (I love how my job allows me to indulge myself in utter, utter girliness sometimes.)

As they are completed I hope to be able to show more. Phil tells me that painting with oils on such tiny canvasses (5" by 5") is a real challenge, but I think they must look so wonderful and special!

Here's a file to give an idea of two of the minipanels created so far. I can't wait to see and show more as they are painted! (You can click the image to make it slightly bigger, but remember, the intention is that it's a small work of art!)

How beautiful!!

On the Plank

Hello! There is so much going on in my head at the moment here in Edinburgh, where I am curled up in the beanbag room of a backpacker hostel, cup of Earl Grey in hand, listening to the sounds of birds chirrupping (I genuinely don't know if the sounds are authentic or just a beautiful dream-state soundtrack they play in this room on loop; it's highly possible there are birds nesting in the enormous window frames. Pretty sure it's real, actually). Out of the windows are old, old buildings and history, with the castle nearby. I love Edinburgh. I love meeting other models, too, and have enjoyed hanging out with Roswell Ivory and Fredau. Being in the company of people who share a similar lifestyle is such a relief, sometimes. I loved a little less the fact that the rain, upon arrival, immediately got into my boots (both pairs I'd brought along with me to Scotland), requiring me to dry my socks on Barrie Spence's studio radiator two days in a row, then initiating a disintegration process in one of the pairs that somehow involved the gradual apparition of a pungent red, ironic powder in the sodden sole (non-durable shoes; a sacrifice I make in refusing to purchase leather). So I ended up shopping for ankle boots in a season which, fashion-wise, lays emphasis on flip flops and open-toe ballet pumps. Luckily, I managed to resist buying my chihuahua a kilt from one of the souvenir shops I happened to pass through. It took a lot of restraint.

Anyway, I wasn't planning to say much in this blog post, so I will be quiet, and show some images recently sent to me by Vanijzen, a photographer I enjoyed working with in Amsterdam. I was given a suspended plank - a table top - and left to my own devices while we listened to some chill-out electronica-ish music. I found the session quite therapeutic.

Hope you like them. I do!

Postcards - an exhibition

As some of you will know, I am in love with the 'Zen Habits' blog, and when writer Leo Babuta featured the quote

~‘Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.'~

at the top of today's post I couldn't help but scribble it out and add it to the mounted collection of phrases and art postcards (picked up from galleries/museums) hanging above my desk. One of my all time favourites is 'Creativity is unexpected connection' - I think it applies so well, and so surprisingly, which is fitting, to many different areas of life! I also have 'The big secret is the ability to stay in the room' above Holbein's Erasme écrivant.


My board of postcards was originally inspired by a similar one which hangs in the bathroom of a painter I spent a year modelling for, who is exhibiting later this week (9th-26th May) at Messum's on Cork Street in London.

You can find information about Robbie Wraith's show here and browse the artworks which will be on display here. I will definitely be going once I'm back from Scotland to look at some I haven't seen before - over the course of a year, there amassed quite a few!


It seems a fitting time to reflect on my first ever experience of art modelling when I am, three years later, busier than I've ever been, being sent booking enquiries so frequently I can hardly keep up, and so incredibly lucky that I am offered work in different countries across the globe that I am able to travel and see so much. I am so grateful! Upcoming trips include Scotland, Ireland, Germany, Paris, Cornwall/Devon, Stockport and more, plus a possible booking in a part of the world I would perhaps never have the opportunity to visit otherwise (but I won't mention before it's confirmed just in case), and from October onwards I am planning some international travel that will take me to some exotic locations, similar to last year (but different places!). I've updated the 'travel' gadget on the right hand side of this blog, to let anyone interested know about a few forthcoming trips.

Anyway, back on topic, I really fell on my feet with this first foray into posing - Robbie's talent is extraordinary and the whole experience influenced my first novel hugely. At age 16 he was invited to study in Florence under Pietro Annigoni; since then he's painted the Queen, Nelson Mandela and accompanied Prince Charles around Africa as travelling artist, and had works displayed in the Vatican amongst other places.

Here are some things we did, available to see at the show in London (click on the images to enlarge them):

Profile
Oil on panel
40.6 x 31 cm (16 x 12 ¹⁄₄ in)
(I absolutely love this painting; as well as being brilliant, hey, why not just paint 29 other famous paintings from history??! Might as well... And the postcards are so cleverly positioned!)

Portrait Study I
Red chalk
30.5 x 23 cm (12 x 9 in)

Yvonne
Pencil
25.4 x 20 cm (10 x 7 ⁷⁄₈ in)

Study, Black Veil
Charcoal
45.7 x 33 cm (18 x 13 in)

Figure Study V
Charcoal
25.4 x 46 cm (10 x 18 ¹⁄₈ in)

Blank Canvas I
Watercolour
30.5 x 41 cm (12 x 16 ¹⁄₈ in)

Contraluce
Watercolour
30.5 x 40.6 cm (12 x 16 in)

 

... And here are a few more of my favourite paintings by Robbie Wraith, also to be found at Messums... 

Alexandra
Oil on panel
30.5 x 17.8 cm (12 x 7 in)

(An amazing portrait of a friend of mine; Hello Alex!!)

Artist & Model
Oil on panel
18 x 30.5 cm (7 ¹⁄₈ x 12 in)

Bougainvillea, Rajasthan
Oil on panel
14 x 20.3 cm (5 ¹⁄₂ x 8 in)

Hanging by a Thread
Watercolour
30.5 x 40.6 cm (12 x 16 in)

 Mr. Wraith's Footsteps
Oil on panel
22.9 x 31 cm (9 x 12 ¹⁄₄ in)

Lungarno Corsini, Florence
Oil on panel
22.9 x 31 cm (9 x 12 ¹⁄₄ in)

Palazzo Corsini Gardens
Oil on panel
20.3 x 25.4 cm (8 x 10 in)

Leica, Bird on a Wire
Oil on panel
20.3 x 25.4 cm (8 x 10 in)

Puppet Shop, Rajasthan
Watercolour
21.6 x 30.5 cm (8 ¹⁄₂ x 12 in)

The Frome below Wareham, Dorset I
Watercolour
21.6 x 31 cm (8 ¹⁄₂ x 12 ¹⁄₄ in)

Twenty-Seven Afternoons
Oil on canvas
76.2 x 122 cm (30 x 48 in)
(This painting formed the majority of the view during much of my own modelling; I love the position of the wrist.)

If you like what you see, drop by the exhibition sometime!