“Spot the Body!”: Meet the Artist Transforming Human Bodies Into Stunning Artwork

A talented artist has transformed the human body into fine art in these incredible photographs.

Craig Tracy became the first artist to open a gallery dedicated to body painting. He’s specialised in the genre for 20 years and, in that time, has painted hundreds of bodies with paintings of animals, diamonds, scenic views and even the Northern Lights. But it can be difficult to spot the body in the pictures.

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Craig, of New Orleans, Louisiana, can spend up to eight hours painting the body, and if there’s a backdrop he has to spend an additional two days creating his masterpiece. Many of his pieces have been sold, with his most popular being ‘Speed’ – a cheetah painted on the side of a woman painted entirely white.

He said: “I first encountered body painting as a child through face painting and then later through the mass media coverage of theatrical makeup in Hollywood and broadway plays. Fine art body painting is mixed media at its finest; part painting, part sculpture, part collaboration, part photography and always deeply human at it’s core. Each body painting offers an exchange of creative energy to circulate between its artist and model. Through a skilful use of photography and videography, body painting is exquisitely able to transcend the ephemeral and offer itself to an unlimited and eager global audience.

Conception of an idea and the research needed to accompany that idea is, on average, a days work. I feel that my success in body painting comes from my ability to create varied images that balance the visual impact of the human body with discriminating design, prodigious colour, intriguing composition and skilful technique or application. Nature is my greatest inspiration but culture guides me as well; I also allow emotions to inspire me as well as the actual and natural curves and angles of the human body”.