Feminine Beauty In All Ages And Shapes

"Magic Act"© J Licsko 

30"x40" oil on canvas

While there is no doubt that the youthful vitality and perfection of a fresh, young woman is held as the ideal inspiration of figure paintings, there is yet something wonderful in the human form at all ages and sizes, either gender.

Many artists have learned much from working with cadavers and that study advanced the art of figure painting.  I was profoundly affected many years ago watching a documentary where a cadaver was being used to show how the nails continue to grow for a time after death.  The hand of what was once last a eighty year old woman was still so magnificently formed, so elegant even long after death, I was overcome with love and respect for the woman an the creative force that made her.

My most interesting model to draw is a woman who is without argument obese.  Her roundness creates wonderful lines. Her bulk drapes like fabric over her chair.  As much as I relish drawing her corpulence, it is only her facial expression that turns me off.  Her many years as an artist's model has come to be a routine, dreaded job.  Her boredom comes through on her face which improves only slightly when she falls asleep.

Tassajara is a favorite place in central California.  It is a Buddhist monastery that  in the summer includes guests and becomes a hot springs resort. The men and women are separated with two wooden bath houses beside a shallow river.  From the women's side I have spent many lazy days taking in the beauty of nature left unimproved, birds sing, the sounds of the  water running by, and the constant parade of women, young to old, perfect in shape to those ravaged by child birth, and perhaps lack of care, moving from the sunning deck, to hot sulfur water pool, then the river.  Warmed by both the sun and the warm water, these relaxed forms take on lovely harmonious shapes with one another.  All female forms including the woman who had replaced her missing breast with a finely detailed tattoo of morning glories across her chest, represent the divine feminine and prove beauty is everywhere.

Today the muse comes from an unexpected source - a blog called Every Photo Tells a Story.  My first visit.  The author of this blog offers a new vision every day to inspire the creatively inclined.  I recommend it. Instantly, upon seeing today's prompt, the drawing of an elegant female figure defined by vines and flowers by Laura Cannon, Larabird Art, I was taken back to my experiences observing and the creation of art inspired by the female figure.