It dawned on me that I really couldn’t mention the talented work of Joanne Gair in the context of a post about body painting without showing you some of her amazing work, so now I’ve decided to do just that.
Joanne Gair Body Painting
Joanne’s work is especially sexy in addition to being impressively detailed. She’s done the body painting on
many famous models for issues of Sports Illustrated over the years, including painted on swimsuits and sports jerseys.
Many a red-blooded male will be very happy I chose to share these with you, as you will soon see.
Painted on Swimsuits for Sports Illustrated:
SI 2009
Brooklyn and Julie:
Irina and Jessica:
SI 2008:
Jessica:
Quiana:
Tori:
Sarah O’Hare and Marisa Miller:
SI Pre-2008:
Rachel Hunter and Heidi Klum:
Yamilla:
Rebecca Romijn and Noemie:
Petra:
Painted on sports jerseys:
Painted on Rock Concert Tees:
Heidi Klum Painted on Pin-Up Series:
And a few more of her amazing images from various projects and editorials:
Joanne Gair: The Art of Illusion (from her site):
Joanne Gair is an artist and image maker who has emerged as the premiere make-up artist/body painter in the world. Originally from New Zealand, Gair had a keen interest in art photography and exploring different mediums, which is what eventually led her down the path as an illusionist and to the United States.
As a make-up artist and body painter, Gair has worked worldwide with the top photographers, directors, super models and celebrities. Her work spans all media, with many memorable editorial covers and layouts, fashion campaigns, advertising, music videos, commercials and motion pictures to her credit.
Gair’s extensive work with editorial (Vogue, W, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Playboy, Black Book, Harper’s Bazaar), fashion campaigns (Donna Karan, Versace, Victoria’s Secret, Guess, bebe) and cosmetic companies (L’Oreal, Maybelline, Revlon, Oil of Olay, Rimmel), has established her as a fixture in the Fashion Industry. Her editorial work spilled over to a two year stint as beauty editor for New York based Black Book magazine.
Almost everyone has seen the August 1992 issue of Vanity Fair, featuring Demi Moore wearing nothing but a suit of body paint. This cover earned Gair worldwide recognition and put her at the pinnacle of the body art genre. The brilliantly painted swimsuits in the 1999 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, featured a twelve page layout using six models as the canvases for Gair’s art. The bathing suits (replicas of original designs) exemplify Gair’s close attention to detail and sense of realism that have made her the master of the art of illusion. Her work has now become a yearly fixture in the SI Swimsuit Issue.
Gair’s first book Paint A’ Licious was released in October of 2005 and featured over 40 new photographed and body painted images. Her second book Body Painting Masterpieces By Joanne Gair, a retrospective of her career to date, was published in 2006. Sports Illustrated released a collection of Gair’s body painted swimsuits in the 2007 book In The Paint – The Art of Joanne Gair.
Joanne Gair continues to drive herself to explore and experiment in her work, in an effort to bring something new to a project every time. In an industry besieged by trend followers, Gair has established herself as the trendsetter.