paul smith's Snaps & Bytes e-home
April 2007: PAUL'S PIECE - The Guild of Erotic Artists open day
Like most people in this industry, I imagine I knew the Guild of Erotic Artists best from their regular appearances at Erotica. I'd met co-founder Ken Clarke several times there, at the Skin Two Expo and at last year's ETO Show at the NEC. However, a visit to one of the Guild's open days was going to introduce me to the wider organisation, in its natural environment.
Sunday the 11th of March was their latest open day and as I arrived at their HQ just outside St. Albans I recalled an interview with fetish and art-nude photographer Bex that I'd conducted for ETO back in mid 2005. She'd mentioned a barn she had use of as a member of the Guild and now I was in front of it; Beaumont Hall Studios. Tucked up a little farm lane, there's something of the scout or guide hut about the building from outside. It's a small barn on the back corner of a farmyard, aged, but beautifully put together with wood rumoured to be recovered timbers from Tudor ships. Certainly the rake of the roof hints at great age and there's speculation that it may have once been a part of an ecclesiastical community on the site, before Henry the Eighth got into the habit of dissolving monasteries.
Guild Secretary Colin Ballard welcomed me in and waved away my £5 entrance fee, which, as a non member I'd usually have to pay. Although the organisation is a non-profit one, their running costs have to be recovered from somewhere. Yearly membership rates span £20 for models to £85 (£75 in subsequent years) for artists, sculptors and photographers who want to be full members. Colin aimed me at Ken Clarke before dashing away to help organise the day's events. Ken explained that they'd been having a Steering Committee meeting ahead of the public's arrival, before introducing me to Paul John Ballard. Brother of Colin and the third co-founder of Beaumont Hall Studios, Paul talked me through his work. Americans appreciate a nice pen and ink or pencil nude, while the British prefer a larger, bolder, more impressionistic or abstract work, I was told. I also heard a list of top footballers who have erotic art decorating any one (or several) of their homes, but not following the sport I didn't really recognise many of the names; Duane Clooney?
By the time demonstrations began at a little after 1pm the barn had filled up with over fifty members and visitors, some of which stepped forward when a semi-naked girl with a broadsword appeared from behind the background curtain we'd be shooting against. Sarah Scotchman is an artist as well as a model, and is a member of the Guild herself. As a part of her visit she'd set up a video camera to record the event for her degree course. I joined the happy snappers and spectacularly failed to get my camera to like the shooting situation.
After Sarah had finished posing, and I'd proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that I've no experience of photography in a studio setting, it was time for Pam of Slipland.net and her lovely ladies to step into the spotlight. They brought a chaise long with them. As Slipland's name suggests, the business focuses on that little-appreciated and often overlooked item of female apparel, the slip. It's a niche they've carved for themselves with a web site subtitled 'The Home of Vintage Slips'. I got better results with the lighting and flash-rig this time and was happy to pass my best shots on to Pam afterwards.
The Guild open days, which are held roughly monthly, typically draw fifty to seventy visitors, with seventy being about the comfortable capacity limit of the barn. It's worth mentioning the farmer is a very understanding man, but the parking on the hard standing of the farmyard is limited, and the lane outside too narrow to leave a car. On the subject of facilities, there's a loo-shaped money box for the 'Better Toilets' fund - at the moment there's a Portaloo or non-brand-name equivalent plastic shed with built-in chemical lavatory outside. I dropped 10p into the box rather than spend a penny.
Geoff, or possibly Jeff, gave me some good advice about how to conduct myself with models while Ken and I discussed the role of religious imagery in modern art. We also talked about the Guilds membership, which has grown by over thirty people a year since it was launched in 2002. There are currently over 170 members and the anticipation is it'll continue to grow organically with a mix of professional and hobby artists alike. Potential new members who'd driven down from Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria just to attend were Mike Kells and his daughter Dawn of Kells Exclusive Images Ltd. She showed me a portfolio of great photos, including many of models dripping with chocolate (possibly before being thrown to the Lesbians, as the t-shirt slogan goes) which is something they've become known for. You'll find some tasty images at kellsphotography.co.uk - a site featuring some cool Flash animated galleries.
Hungry after viewing the pictures, I followed my nose to a counter at the door end of the barn where late breakfasts were still being served. With a sausage sandwich dripping with ketchup made for me by mature model Silvee, who I'd met at Erotica in November, I mingled with the crowd and looked over the many pieces of art adorning the c.15th century walls of the barn. Photographic prints of her Fetish Dollies by Nancy Farmer kept me entertained, as did Ken Clarke's body casts, which show minute detail. As you'd expect I didn't respond to every style of work I saw ("I don't know much about art, but I know what I like") but there was no denying the quality of artistry or creativity on show. Banks of spot lamps threw enough light around the windowless barn to make it work well as a gallery as well as a studio space, and I can see why the Guild is so fond of it. Even with the pressure for parking spaces and current toilet facilities situation.
Having a couple of photos in the current issue of Skin Two magazine, taken at their Ball and Cocktail Party last October, I was feeling suitably proud and pleased with myself, but looking around at the stunning black and white photos of pert nipples and pouting lips (don't go there) I felt firmly put back in my place as 'keen amateur who gets the odd lucky shot'. Still, I'd received some good advice from Stuart Freeman, the chap running the demo which Sarah modelled for, and had learned how to manually set shutter speed and focal depth. Frankly I'm still rather fond of my camera's auto mode though.
Another demo was by Leigh Snowdon-Perkins of Mighty Aphrodite, who'd set up a flat screen monitor and small graphics tablet to show-off his Adobe Photoshop skills. With a thought towards my upcoming adult film project I asked about de-interlacing video capture images. It's as simple as Tools>De-interlace. Leigh also showed the subtle art of airbrushing imperfections out, which these days takes a clone tool and knowing when to stop before every characteristic mole has been blended away.
It'd long gone 4pm when I left, a good sign that talking to artists, which does carry more danger of bewilderment than say, chatting with a cabby, hadn't induced any boredom. Indeed, my time with the Guild had just flown by. I squeezed my car out of its parking space and went home, vowing to learn how to manually drop the ISO setting on my camera. My conversations at the barn had convinced me of the need for an organisation for artists working at the spicier end of whichever medium their muse calls them to. Key words and phrases I'd heard several times include recognition, passion, braking down barriers and, on a more financial front, sponsorship. It was a surprise to learn that nothing similar existed before the Guild's creation in 2002, but perhaps it's a creature of enlightened and liberal 21st century artistic sympathies. More people do seem happy to embrace sexuality through art; either creating it, or asking others to do so on their behalf. With Leigh of Mighty Aphrodite booked up for months in advance to photograph men, women and couples keen to capture themselves or each other on film -or the digital equivalent- as a gift to themselves or a partner, there's no shortage of potential customers for autoerotica. Or by extension, erotic art in general. On that basis alone, the Guild of Erotic Artists has a rosy-bottomed future to look back in a mirror on, while tweaking its growing public profile wantonly.
The next Guild open day is also at The Old Barn, Beaumont Hall Studios, Beaumont Hall Lane off the A1081, two miles northwest of St Albans in Hertfordshire, from 12pm on April the 15th. Contact details, directions and a useful map can be found at theguildoferoticartists.com.