EYES a psychedelic body paint experiment

I am happy to be experimenting with more color body painting outside of my strictly black and white body art series Earth Goddess. I wanted to share with you my most recent color body art experience:

It all started out with this concept sketch done on sticker paper. 

and then paint to flesh!

The actual body painting took around 4 hours to do.

My friend and model Hannah was very patient and so we had fun hanging out as I painted her on the sunny nude beach of Sauvie Island in Portland Oregon. 

By the time I was finished with the body painting, the sun was beginning to set. I loved the colors in the sky, and the overall mellow lighting produced. 

And yes, I used creepy cat heads to censor this photo. The original was deleted by Instagram & Facebook because it violated the online communities puritanical rules against posting photos of the human body. I am deeply conflicted about having to censor my art, but using disturbing cat head stickers has made it a lil less painful. Why must society perpetuate fear and shame of the human body? Why do we treat our bodies as profane and distasteful things? 

The nudity found throughout my art is an innocent, natural non sexualized nudity. And for those who find my work offensive, well get your mind out of the gutter. 

And on that happy note...Much love! 

-Chelsea Rose 

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New Painting: The Deepest Garden

Happy Friday the 13th!

Just wanted to share my newest acrylic painting with you:



"The Deepest Garden"
12"x16"
original acrylic painting on canvas by Chelsea Rose

The painting was inspired by Man Ray's famous photograph, A l'Heure de l'Observatoire: les Amoureux.

An interesting quote by the man himself:
""I paint what cannot be photographed, that which comes from the imagination or from dreams, or from an unconscious drive. I photograph the things that I do not wish to paint, the things which already have an existence." — Undated interview, circa 1970s; published in Man Ray: Photographer, 1981."


In other news, tomorrow I will be down at the Portland Saturday Market selling my art.


Its been awhile since I have done the market. I have been focusing so much on my Goddess body art photography series that most every weekend has been dedicated to those pursuits.

Blessings,
-Chelsea Rose

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Out with the Old, In with the New- paintings

3 day weekends are such blessings.

On Saturday morning I was very excited to learn that i had sold a painting!

------------SOLD---------------
14"x 18"
Original acrylic painting
by Chelsea Rose

I was contacted by someone who had been passing through Oregon and just so happened to wander into the feminist bookstore InOtherWords where i had a bunch of artwork being featured. While they couldn't buy and take anything home right away because they had a lot of musical equipment to fly home with...they decided to contact me once they were home about purchasing the piece. Thus,today after work i will be shipping this one out. This will be the first time i have shipped a larger painting of mine and I was a little nervous about it but I am happy to learn it isn't going to be a super expensive endeavour.
I am very glad "The Reckoning" has found a good home, although i am going to miss my gaggle of "fish of perceptions" and their weighty stares.

In the afternoon on Saturday Danny and I watched T.Ruth Art space Gallery from 1-6. We both brought art projects to work on. I was finally able to finish a painting i had been neglecting for far too long:


"Endowed"
11"x14"
original acrylic painting
by Chelsea Rose
( the quality on this photo is poor. I will try and replace it with a better one soon)

....and because i love process shots, here are a couple photos i took while creating the painting:

The painting was based on this drawing of mine:

( pen and ink drawing by Chelsea Rose)

i made this drawing while watching an interesting cartoon movie about Wonder Woman's amazonian princess origins. Seeing all the fierce strong warrior women was inspiring. I got to doodling and this daunting creature came out. I think she is some kind of druid, high priestess warrior woman who is "endowed" with an extra set of "windows to the soul." I wonder if they shoot laser beams?! :P

I transferred the drawing onto a red painted canvas. I transferred the pen and ink by projecting my illustration onto the canvas and tracing the outline. I then went in and began to put down the first layers of color.


...more color work being done here.


...and here it is all finished. I was letting the varnish dry at this point.
You can see a lot of changes from this photo and the one above. I added a heavy black vignette around the piece while dropping her arms down and repositioning her hands. I also made the skin more blue/green with darker shadow.

...now i have to decide what i want to paint next. I have a bunch of blank canvas and they are all calling.

On Sunday Danny and I ran around to the local hardware stores working on getting the new apartment more livable. I picked up a bunch of pots and seeds and planted an herb garden on the patio: rosemary, chamomile, thyme, basil, cilantro, serreno chilies + more. I also planted some wild flower mixes and some morning glory vine. I am really hoping i get some sprouts!

Monday involved more home improvement chores...although Danny and I did slip away to hang out with some dear friends we had not seen in a long time.

All in all...it was a pleasant and productive 3 day weekend and i find myself feeling refreshed and ready to face the rest of the week. How was your 3 day weekend/memorial day weekend?

Much love and many blessings,
-Chelsea Rose
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Weekend art projects- works in progress

So this weekend I focused on a healthy combination of spring cleaning, watching x-files, and working on art projects new and old.

By the end of Sunday my apartment was tidy with one exception: my art table:

Pretty messy huh?

Well it is a productive mess, so i dont mind so much.

I managed to begin a new painting that i had been talking about starting for a few weeks now:


freaky huh?

I started this painting based off of an older pen and ink drawing that you can view here.
I dont use the color red very often. I have found that even when i use it minimally in my artwork people become very disturbed by the piece. So this use of red comes as a bit of a shock but i felt it matched the fierceness of the creature. I have to admit i decided to paint this piece in semi retaliation for all the flack i catch for painting my faeries, my goddesses, my creatures of all sorts with nude breast. People have told me the offense doesn't necessarily lie in the "suggestion" of nude breast but the full nudity of the breast including the showcasing of the nipple. Well....there are no nipples to be seen in this painting but im sure its still pretty "jarring"
: P

I also worked on finishing a few more ink drawing over acrylic painted canvas:



The three that i have propped up here i had just finished gloss varnishing. Im trying to pump these out so i can have a bunch to display and hopefully sell come this Thursday which just so happens to be Last Thursday Artwalk on Alberta st (portland oregon) where i will have a full booth set up selling my art wares. I have a few of these "ink over acrylic painted canvas" art pieces for sell in my etsy shop, just check out my original artwork section. They are selling for $45.

...So that's that. I believe my next post wont be till Friday...but i will be recounting how our experience went at Last Thursday Art walk on Alberta with pictures of our booth set up + more.
So till then...

Much love!
-Chelsea Rose
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