Gallery

ARTWORK DETAILS

Name: Sarah Leahy	School:
Title: Bootilicious	Medium: Painting
Description: Acrylic paint on Canvas

ARTIST STATEMENT

My artwork, ‘Bootilicious’, was equally inspired by Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein’s seminal works and the Pop Art movement. This work consists of two canvases, with a mirror image of a naked woman’s back. In society, particularly in modern media, women’s bodies are heavily scrutinised developing unrealistic standards of beauty. The artwork aims to prompt thought and conversation about these unrealistic standards. The rendering of these works in bright colours allows the art work to catch the audience’s attention and challenges them to consider the appropriateness of modern society’s commercialising and commodifying of women’s bodies.

ARTWORK PROCESS

1. Traced a woman's body onto canvas. 2. Cleaned up the lines making sure they were neat. 3. Painted the background – made sure the paint around the lines was clean. 4. Added layers to the background to make the colour even. 5. Painted the shadows onto the body, then added the highlights. Ensured even colour. 6. Cleaned up the lines more. I went over the paint with a paint pen and added the outline of the body and the creases. Note: Both of the canvases were created using the same method, different colours and different paint markers for the second.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Sarah Leahy

Sarah has studied art throughout her high school career and is currently a senior Visual Art student. She has recently chosen to explore representations of the female form in her artworks and aims to reconsider traditional use of female nudes in an empowering and positive way. Her works echo the Pop Art movement, especially works by Warhol and Lichtenstein, using bright, contrasting flat colours to grab audience’s attention. Commentating on the commercialisation of the female form in the media, as well as the negative implications of the male gaze, Sarah’s work is a contemporary conversation for all women.