On Wednesday, the night before the Welsh body finals day, I hadn’t got a model sorted and not much of an idea either.
Just before I went to bed (we had a cosy yurt for the night after our tent started leaking in torrential rain and my toddler developed a hideous cough) I found the lovely Stacey who was a wee bit sad, as she’d been booked to paint by some body-painting gurus, who’d left instead. Luckily I was acceptable so she became ‘my’ model for the day.
Stacey had one request; to be ‘dark’. Not my usual at all, but cool. The theme was ‘Wild Things’; I thought a lot of people would do animals, etc, and wanted to be outside the box. So, I decided the wildest things of all were inside people’s heads, and how to get them out? Wild ‘drugs’.
So the purple outer layer was liquid opium & wine, the blue layer was spotty for hallucinogens derived from frogs & toads, the green layer had stencilled plant leaves to be ‘herbal highs’ and the yellow core was painted with grains to represent alcoholic spirits.
I wanted the idea of layers…didn’t quite get there (no time to shade it) but did manage a few ‘holes’ with sort of ‘god rays’ shining light out from the inner mind/ body.
Also we chose a peacock to be her spirit guide, especially on her feet to be guiding her steps.
Whack on some peacocky dreads and a rooster tail boa I had from an earlier costume I made, and ta-dah! A Spirit Shamen. With a fabby REAL tanned toad to lick (a purse I’d picked up when we sailed our catamaran through the Philippines).
Talk about dedication – when being judged (and all during the photo shoot!) Stacey actually LICKED Toady, shocking 1 of the judges who asked to see him and wasn’t expecting a soggy amphibian.
As well as Nick Parry, the official photographer, the amazing Adrian of Frames Photography came down for the competition days to document my (and others!) artwork especially against outside scenery – thanks so much!
I came 2nd in body painting, just below the amazing team who did the Wild Sports on Rob, made up of Zoe and Heather, who deservedly won.
Anyway, thanks to all models, painters, organisers – fab event, check out welshfestival.webs.com/ for more pics too.
Body Painting by Cat 
