Bubble-gum Bouguereau: Insta (Frankie) (Patreon)

Following on from last weeks Selfie photoset we have Frankie's Insta photoset. We wanted to reference two aspect of Bouguereau's work in this set; his use of draped fabric and the narrative focus on hands in many of his single-figure paintings. For better or worst most of us interact with our phones more than any other hand-held object and the devise can be analogous of many of the objects that might be held in the hand of the subject of 19th contrary figure painting. When somebody is stood looking at their phone they might be performing the equivalent of reading a novel, perusing a letter or staring into a handhand-mirror and in your own work from these images you might choose to replace the phone with a fan, a flower, a book or a sheet of paper. 

Frankie has been exploring the relationship we have with our devices through her own performance and visual art practice, including a durational performance in which she repeatedly recreated Velasquez's Rokeby Venus with an iPad in place of a mirror, live streaming the mirror's view on Instagram. In this photoset we can imagine her on Instagram, in poses that reference paintings of our titular Bouguereau and John William Godward's Athenais. After shooting the set Frankie and Rea Stavropoulos drew my attention to the current exhibition of photography by Yevonde's, pioneer of colour photography which parallels wonderfully with the aesthetic of some of our current photosets and deserves further investigation. 

• Recommended exhibition: Yvonne: Life and Colour at the National Portrait Gallery, London until October 15th 2023.

Athenais (1908) by John William Godward

Portrait of Vivien Leigh (1936) by Madame Yevonde 

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About the model

• Frankie can be found on Instagram HERE. She is also currently raising money for art school - you can support her HERE.
• You can find portrait replays of Frankie HERE and HERE
• You can find Frankie's Magritte themed life drawing replay HERE and her bath themed session HERE
• Find Frankie's clothed, portait, life & Summer Showers photo-sets by following the links.
• Frankie is ringmistress of the Drawing Circus and is in most of our Drawing Circus reference image HERE
• Frankie has more reference photos available on her Patreon HERE

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About the photos

• This photoset was shot by Justyna Neryng - you can buy or commission photosets from her directly HERE
• You can follow Justyna on Instagram HERE
• For the full list of autumn 2023 release dates, have a look at our teaser photo-set HERE

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Use the Draw Patreon Navigator to find any of our past photosets and take a look at our blogs on how to gather, manipulate and translate photo reference.

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Guidelines for using the photographs

Please do:

• Download these pictures to your own computers and devices, downloading the Zip files for all images, or saving individual photos.
• Use the pictures to draw, paint, print and sculpt from, being as realistic or creative as you like
• Share the artwork you’ve made with us and the world - in books, in exhibitions, on social media, or on your fridge
• Tag us in work you make (@drawbrighton / #drawbrighton) – you don’t have to, but we love to see what you’ve made!
• Edit the photo files as reference for your own drawings - you can change the contrasts, colours and backgrounds to provide more tailored reference for yourself.

Please don't:

• Share these pictures with anybody else – they are between you and us
• Share the photos themselves online – thanks for respecting our models’ privacy
• Include photos themselves in artwork – we want to see original work you’ve made

Thanks!