I thought I’d missed the deadline for the UK Face & Body Convention Body comp (postal entry) but they extended it and as I finally have stopped face-painting EVERY day I wanted to try.
I only had a few spare days though, so luckily had a very kind friend (Kate) volunteer to model, and Mich to take photos. Then at short notice hubby (aka babysitter) went to sail a boat back from Germany, so I was baby-sitter less. Kate didn’t mind Finley being around, but I’m never doing a paint with him unaccompanied again. I locked him in the dining room with us and he proceeded to destroy it – toys and food everywhere – paying no attention to his books, music, even a dvd!
He finally settled down a bit when we ‘let’ him help the paint. Kate reckons it’s a free-form expression of the tornado that takes Dorothy to Oz!
So not an ideal situation; not much time and a distracting toddler around! Think we did it in 3 hours as Kate had to go to work (after a shower!).
As said, thanks to Kate for lending her body for 3 hours, and Michelle Workman for the pics.
Note the beautiful free-form chaos of the below-knee work by 2 month old Finley:)So was supposed to be Dorothy (dress & hair), tin man/ lion (1/2face & arm each),Emerald City (front), wicked witch (stripey sock with her creepy shadow of nose and hands).
The black & white start of the film on the farm with the tornado (other leg) and the rainbow in the tutu.
As you can see Mac, my MIL’s dog, decided to make a guest aappearance as Toto.
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 
