Gil Elvgren

So many things inspire me, films, books, seeing a funky girl on the street who just looks cool, my visual influences come from so many different sources. 
One of the biggest inspirations for the way I look and the photography and design work I do with my husband for our company Nicky Rockets comes from the amazing Gil Elvgren.
As its Monday morning and we need something fun and perky to get us going I thought what better was than to talk about the fantastic Mister Elvgren and his bevy of pin up beauties.

Talk about a water cooler moment

 You may not have heard of Gil Elvgren but his work is instantly recognisable and if you have ever pulled a pouty over the top pose for a photograph that most definitely is the Elvgren effect.
Elvgren was a classical illustrator who from the mid nineteen thirties until nineteen seventy two painted over five hundred paintings of beautiful girls and women mostly oils on canvas. He worked for a company called Brown and Bigelow who were the biggest calendar company in America and it was via these calenders that the world came to love and appreciate his saucy yet innocent portrayals of fabulous looking pin up girls.

If only I looked this saucy when I get caught in the rain

Considered the  master of portraying the all-American feminine ideal he has been described as "The Norman Rockwell Of Cheesecake Vintage". His work has certainly had a huge influence on the world of vintage inspired art, tattoos, Burlesque and fashion.

I love the directness of this girls gaze. 

I love his work because it is just so adoring of the female form.The glimpses of stockings, the recurring theme of a woman being sexy without even realising what she is doing.They are like looking through the eyes of someone in the giddy first stages of being in love and lust. Even the simplest gesture or almost comical situation is loaded with innuendo.

Doing the Davina DVD never looked so hot

I also love the shapes of the women Elvgren painted. Tiny waists, curvaceous legs, rounded breasts. With the modern "Ideal" of feminine beauty becoming increasingly slight and frail looking these women pack curves in all the right places.

 

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