The Evanescent Beauty of Bodypainting

Apparently, next month will see the Austrians ( the jerks who gave us Arnold Schwarzenegger, not the jerks who gave us Nicole Kidman ) hold something called the World Bodypainting Festival, and if some of the works featured in festivals past and present are anything to go by things are gonna be way out there, weeeird, outré, surreal, wacky and, of course, goofy…

Lovely colors on this one, and the contours of the model’s face don’t exactly hurt. I’m not sure what the motif (if any) is but I suspect it may be a Koi Pond sort of thing. You’ve got the orange scales, water, and what looks like some species of plant, so it’s either a Koi Pond or a depiction of some sort of exotic dish made from fish and grapes.

Whoa, freaky! A peacock motif, I suppose, except with a touch of physical gross-out horror. If NBC were insane enough to get David Cronenberg to redesign their famous logo, this is what you’d get. Without the nudity, of course, can’t go pissing off the FCC…

Speaking of film references, here we have what seems to be some sort of “2001 : A Space Odyssey” type theme, what with the simian-looking gentleman at the bottom (almost on the bottom, actually) and an astronaut on top. No bone spinning through the air, but close enough. Personally, what really grabs me about this one is the colors and shapes on the head and arms, I can take or leave the faces.

Great colors and textures on this one, a really gnarly depiction of a mentally ill lizard-man having some sort of ferocious argument with his own hand…

Seahorses, peacock feathers and a keyhole. What it all means is rather beyond me, but it’s very pretty and let’s face it – most of the time that’s all art needs to be. I tried to come up with some sort of obscene joke about the keyhole, but I couldn’t think of anything suitable for a family friendly site like R.G. Oh, wait, how about “Hey babe, can I plug your…”, no best leave it alone…

Here, puss, puss, puss…

This one is very striking and sci-fi-ish. Apparently it’s painted in some sort of glow in the dark paint that is invisible under normal conditions but reveals itself when exposed to black light…

And as a couple of cherries on top, here’s a pair of pics of Kate Upton sporting a little bodypaint. It’s all rather prosaic by comparison and I’m pretty sure she has nothing to do with the festival and probably thinks Austria is that South American country that Hugh Jackman comes from, but it’s Kate Upton wearing very little so how can you say no?