As soon as I saw Olivia’s work full of eroticism and sexy lingerie, I knew that I had to mention it on my blog . I was filled with excitement and I asked her for permission to write about her. To my surprise, she agreed.
Olivia De Berardinis, born in November of 1948, is an artist from United States who paints pinup girls. Surprisingly, she contributes monthly to Playboy magazine, presenting her art with Hugh Hefner’s captions. What a pleasure to know that Hugh Hefner appreciates this kind of work and it turns out that he was inspired by pinup to begin with.
It is a challenge to be a female artist who paints images that are considered to be “male oriented”. Not everyone gets it and Olivia may be faced with some unhappy feminists. They just see her as some type of an anomaly. It all will change, some day, when people become more open-minded.
I invite you to pay a visit to Olivia’s website. She has a lot of amazing paintings of women, especially women in sexy lingerie like stockings!
What do our readers have to say about this artist? Here are some wonderful letters I got.
David from Canada
“I think that it’s refreshing to see depictions of women who are unabashedly revealing, and reveling in, their erotic power. These days that just doesn’t happen. The “ideal” modern woman is either the stern fashion model or the strong athlete – pure femininity has become an anachronism. The other thing that the artwork connotes, although implicitly, is the innocent male gaze. The idea that a man can appreciate feminine beauty with out being lascivious, and that women would enjoy that attention, even actively seek it. These days, the “male gaze” is seen as something impertinent, rude and unwanted. That’s what the art evokes for me, nostalgia for a time when sexual chemistry wasn’t so actively squelched. Besides nostalgia, I would also say that the pure sexual and sensual energy of the images is arresting. The lingerie, especially the stockings, creates a dual response: the feminine part of my psyche wonders what it would feel like to wear the clothes, to feel their sensations and to move my body in an alluring way, while the male part wonders what it would be like to touch and embrace the women. One thing is certain, you can’t view the art without feeling a strong and deep reaction.”
David from United States
“I enjoyed studying all the images of Olivia’s that I could find. In her work I see consistent use of fetish and fantasy to portray women as both beautiful and powerful. For me, there is nothing more attractive and than a woman who uses the disarming strength of a man’s fetish to get her way…. a sensual, steamy tango between the hunter and the game …I am most drawn to the many pieces that show women in powerful stances – hands on hips, hips thrown forward, chest out and proud. Olivia found a husband who shares her passion for fetish art, and she still creates images for Playboy Magazine, with Hughes Hefner composing the captions. “
Olivia’s Website:
I am a big fan of the pin up girl art.