Well it’s been a while since I last did one of these paintings, and I’ve totally enjoyed the creative experience of it again as much as the first ones! They are the ultimate piece of art as far as I am concerned, being so very personal, brightly vibrant, colourful, and oh sooooooooo naughty!
Those of you who are used to my artwork know what I am talking about, but for those who don’t I’ll explain.
The “Fantasy Fanny” paintings are portraits, of women, and are deeply personal, and private and yet public all at the same time. They are the parts of a body that a woman doesn’t normally show the world other than to her lovers. Normally you have your portrait done as a painting of your face, with your name as the title. But these are the private feminine portraits with the title making them anonymous. I chose the word “Queynte” as its an old fashioned English word meaning vagina, but I wanted a word that was neither medical or insultingly detrimental to women, and Queynte was the perfect one. I might have chosen the word “Pussy” except the local cats protection society wouldn’t have been at all happy, expecting to see pictures of cute fluffy kittens curled up asleep in baskets. I know the fact that I call the group “Fantasy Fannies” is slightly confusing to Americans, but they’ll soon learn, its not their version of Fanny, its ours 🙂 . The numbers are just the chronological order that I do them in, and this one is the 22nd, hence Queynte 22 being its title. I’ve painted them for women around the world … in England, America, Canada and New Zealand. And one of them is mine, since I am proud of this collection of paintings I had to add my own to the set. But mine is as anonymous as the rest of them.
I know they are liberating, and therapeutic, because of the feedback I’ve had regarding them. I know the women who have participated in this collection of paintings have loved the fact their pussies are on show to the world, but so nicely hidden that people are never quite sure what it is they are looking at. Are those lines and shapes vaguely a fanny, no of course not, why would you think such a thing! They look more like flowers in a way. And of course, innocents only see innocence in the paintings, they see nothing rude at all. Why would they?
The paintings are all anatomically correct, and of course it helps that fannies look abstract before you even start drawing them. But where I might see a collection of textures, I will draw a corresponding shape, that may remind someone of a chinese symbol, or a stylised animal, a leaf or a letter of the alphabet. These marks help to camouflage the image, and of course the choice of colours will also mask the subject matter. But in this instance the woman in question particularly wanted purples, all shades of purples from deep dark rish purple, to purply pinks, hairbell blues, lavender and lilac, and we agreed with a focal colour of turquoise just to break up the purples, and add a zesty contrast to the painting. It looks like an abstract painting, it is an abstract painting. But its far more personal than it appears. Visitors to the owners house may see it, depending on which room she puts it in, and might make a comment about it matching the decor, and probably won’t give it a second glance, just t
hinking of it as matching the curtains, or the cushions, and not giving it another look. But the woman of the house, and the man of the house, will know that what they are looking at, is far more personal than anything they could imagine. And if of course any visitor would be rude enough to say “That picture reminds me of a pussy, doesn’t it you?” they can look affronted and call the visitor insultingly rude for even thinking such a thing, whilst laughing inwardly to themselves, knowing that that is exactly what it is! The ultimate conversation piece, I think. Don’t you….? lol
In them I always paint the woman logo as a reminder of what it is about, but the more I look at them the more I see other images and in this one I can see an oak leaf, a man chasing a seahorse, an eye, a flying dove, a face, a chicken, a dragons head and a scorpion. But what can you see……….?