This photographic figure study pictorial began as a concept of beautiful nude international female
figure model, Melanie Lemay, interacting with dark lava rock on a tropical island shoreline.
The poses in these photographic artworks were influenced by historic paintings set in the studio
or other interior ambience. A reclining nude model is far more comfortable on a soft padded sofa
than posing on unyielding jagged lava rock.
In the spirit of reclining and seated nudes by master painters, these traditional artworks from
1558 through 1978 influenced this pictorial exhibition:
Titian 1558 "Danae,"
Rembrant 1654 "Bathsheba at Her Bath,"
Delacroix 1825 "Female Nude Reclining on a Divan,"
Manet 1878 "Woman in a Bathtub,"
Gauguin 1897 "Nevermore,"
Toulouse-Lautrec 1897 "Reclining Nude,"
Boldini 1911 "Reclining Nude,"
Schiele 1914 "Wally Neuzil,"
Parrish 1926 "Stars,"
Wyeth 1978 "Overflow."
Picasso 1933 "Minotaure," and
Matisse 1940 "Pink Nude"
"It is a challenging collaboration for both the photographer and the model to take the nude
figure out of the comfortable confines of the studio and infuse it into the textured wilds of
nature and emerge with beautiful works of art," Allio said. "Melanie Lemay is a talented
life model who repeatedly melds her natural body into rugged scenes with beauty, poise, and grace
to create stunning nude figure artworks. She has a rare and specialized skill for understanding
shape and projecting her natural female body as an exciting artform."
