Natalie Irish is by far the hottest painter in all the world, why, because Natalie uses her mouth to express her artistry. Not just the whole mouth her lips in particular make all kinds of funny shapes and odd twist to form exquisite paintings of major celebrities and persons of note. Natalie and Dennis Bateman, who by the way wears lots of different hats, that bear the name of husband, manager, confident, and friend, spent their glamorous Hollywood one day stay, at the stunning, The Redbury at Hollywood and Vine. On the way to Natalie’s room which required a special key to go from floor one to floor three, the décor of the hotel reflected the class and sophistication of old Hollywood. After all, we were in the height of the The MTV/VMA’s Cover Girl Party, who invited Natalie out from her birthplace of Houston, Texas, to paint for four hours. Not her usual stay of kissing canvas, which, on an average a 24×36 can take two to three weeks with frequent breaks. Natalie using various lip pressure, painted the VMA’s Cover Girl “Moonman” statuette. Using Covergirl’s Outlast, an all day, lip color, and Lip Perfections base with Colorlicious gloss on top, as you might imagine, Natalie was the life of the party. Irish talked about how her lips swell and that not one product that she has discovered has remedied this problem, and so, she simply uses ice. “I’m quite exhausted you know, and when my lips swell it creates a challenge making it more difficult.to apply pressure,” she said. One other factor as to the subject of lipstick that last all day, is that when colors have to be changed, the all, day, lipstick doesn’t come off. In knowing this, Natalie blends various shades and textures at times, of different brands to apply when enduring long hours. Irish started her venture in kissing canvas, after learning the technique of thumb printing while in high school. In 2001, upon heading out to see a band, she blotted her red lips onto tissue. Now for all of us who have blotted, we well know that the images that begin to form can be very cool looking. Natalie using her knack to align with the spirit of pointillism, with puckered lips, took to canvas, creating a forever favorite, kissed out portrait of Marilyn Monroe. Irish finds various techniques from different pigments, noting that each brand offers a variety of colors. She likes the peachy oranges by Cover Girl, and thought that they would make for interesting textures. When the lip-tress is painting a face or other subject matter at her Texas based studio, inspiration can come from the intended subject’s repertoire of music, if the project is about a musician. Documentaries and other subjects keep the painters mind fresh and updated, Sort of like pulling energy from the essence of the portrait that she sees, storing that energy into her lips, and then pressuring images through to the canvas. Just like any other painter, artist, Natalie Irish has to consider the images composition, lighting, and shading. “Dennis knows so much about colors, even more than my drag queen friends,” she says with an affectionate and infectious smile. He is an expert at Giclee, also pronounced, G-Clay as well as an incredible photographer. He manages the business I just want to paint. We make a great team.” For those of you that may be unfamiliar with the term, it’s a relatively new process of reproducing fine art by archival, high quality, inkjet printers. The process was discovered in the early 1990’s. Presently, the renowned artist is planning a series of mix-media projects that can blend with other products some sheer, some heavy pigmented, some not. The painter also makes her own colors using her own line and combines different tones and sensitivities to her palette. “I don’t want to be stuck, just doing faces, I want to branch out and do other things.” Honestly, I could feel my lip sliding slowly inside the curve of my mouth, with no advanced warning as to which part of them would be punctured by my teeth, first. I was infatuated with the fact that an intimate act like kissing could make its way as a legitimate art form. When it comes to matters of the heart, Natalie believes that her kisses on canvas can help to heal those who have suffered tragic lives. Kisses can help to liven up the moment, to whet the appetite, and to inspire and incite intimacy for even the loneliest of hearts For more information on Natalie Irish and her lips to canvas kisses, please reference www.natalieirish.com. Photos of Natalie lip painting at MTV /VMA’s by Curves and Chaos’ Becky G and Jessie J.
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