Painted Mommy-To-Be Tummies
I love working with body painters. They do the most creative art on bodies. This Sunday a collection of painters covered both full body nude pregnant moms and on some just their tummies. They took full advantage of the wonderfully round shape; so different than the usual bodies they paint.
Of course for some, like Melody Kielek’s adorable Winnie the Pooh image and Fran William’s birdy at sunrise with the little baby’s name incorporated it’s a nod to why there is this great round tummy. In 1 to 4 hours every tummy became a dramatically different piece of art.
After the photos were taken it was a little unsettling to watch the painter scrub her barely finished artwork off of the tummy to start again with a whole new concept. The last finished art piece was sprayed gently with hairspray to protect the painting for what could be a few days if Mom was careful.
At the end of the day watching the moms so carefully covering their body painted tummies to be sure they would not smudge was a little comical. One of our moms just tied her shirt up under her breasts so it would be easy to show off. She had a few kids back home eager to see it.
For this body painting adventure, April Brown from In Style Hair joined us. Hairstyling is the polished touch that gave the moms that extra boost of confidence. Nicely done the way April did it adds delicate detail to the final image. Her approach both relaxed them and added to their excitement of the creation.
Melody created the most fascinating mandala design painted with UV paints, as you can see, it looked amazing in both white light and black light. The octopus and mermaid piece was equally transformed under the UV rays.
The diversity among the art was fascinating. Amanda Tozer created an engaging view inside Mandy’s tummy. You could see the little baby all curled up in the womb. It was incredible.
Body painters like Joanne start out with a drawing concept when working on large complex art pieces. Lindsay’s full figure gave her lots of dimension to create depth. Her Octopus’ tentacles twisted up and around the perfect form and the mermaid nestled neatly in the middle.
While I can easily write about the transformations of the tummies and the nude bodies, you can get a better sense of them from the images included here. What was really fascinating to watch was the excitement of the moms-to-be. None had been body painted before and their tummies, like all expectant moms, were very different. Perfectly round to oblong shapes, some even changing as the baby shifted in their home.
Watching each woman’s fascination of her tummy or full-body disappear into first smudges of color, then become a shape with shading until finally the detailed art strokes brought the image to life, was priceless.
Some of the art had been preconceived, like the Octopus and the mermaid, just needing a pregnant body for the canvas. Others were created at the moment, drawing from insightful questions the painters asked their canvases. For example, Janine’s first art was a complex mandala circle that kept expanding. Janine was a self-confessed science nerd (her description). It was a perfect fit.
The hilarious bonus was when she under the UV lights she got this glowing Cheshire cat grin.
By the end of the day, they had convinced us we should be offering this to more expectant moms. They felt these would be such delightful memories, these painted tummies, for mom and kids, magical keepsakes.
The painters got very excited, talking about how they could incorporate children and fathers into the art as well. There are so many possibilities, just take a look at what has been created on our Pinterest page
