Are you still reading the OLD version of this blog?!

Join me at the new Pinup Blog at:

http://www.thepinupblog.com/

Click here to continue reading this article on the new Pinup Blog.

Who are the gutsy women, who aren’t afraid to stand in the face of feminism and talk about their feminine experience, via the provocative art of cheesecake?

Pinup art is typically thought of as a “boy’s art”. Many don’t even realize, that the sexy eye-candy, in the picture, was created by a woman. This post is dedicated to the fine female artists of pinup art. They are rare and few, but they left an undeniable mark on this “boy’s club”.

The Classic Artists
There weren’t many women painting pinups, in the 30’s and 40’s. Hell! There weren’t many women in the work-force, in the 30’s and 40’s. So these girls are pioneers in many aspects. Did they change the pinup landscape? I definitely believe so. A more personal touch, a more respectful treatment of the individual and a more active pinup.

Zoë Mozert

Most of Zoë Mozert (1907 - 1993) did calender work, mostly, so you could say she was a classic pinup artist. However, she’s done extensive work for the film-poster industry (couldn’t find any pictures, so if you have any please send them over, so I can share with everyone!). One of the most interesting facets of Mozert’s work, is the fact that she often modeled for herself. As an artist, it brings an interesting twist to the self-portrait. Something to think about...

Pearl Frush

Frush was academically educated in the arts. She opened her first studio in 1940. By 1943, she had become one of the Gerlach-Barklow Calendar Company's most important artists. In 1956 she would be published by Brown& Bigelow. Frush’s work is technically solid and respectful towards her subject, this is evident in the fact that each pinup has an individual face. The background is usually more symbolic, which makes the pinup pop, even though there are specific details, such as a light-house or rocks, at the sea. But most of her work features a generic color background. Frush, herself, was an active woman and depicted an active, young woman’s life style, in her pinups.

Joyce Ballantyne

Joyce Ballantyne (b.1918) was probably the most famous of the female pinup artists, of her time. She Attended The University of Nebraska, where she was born, painting murals in her spare time for department stores and movie theaters, before leaving to study commercial art. Later, she would join the likes of Gil Elvgren, Earl Gross, AI Moore, Coby Whitmore, Thornton Utz, and Al Buell, at Stevens/Gross. In 1945, after being recommended by Elvgren, Ballantyne started working for Brown & Bigelow.
Ballantyne is mostly known for her Shaw-Barton 1955 pinup calender and for her Coppertone suntan lotion ad. She also did much advertising work for other national clients, including Sylvania TV, Dow Chemical, Coca-Cola, and Schlitz Beer. She painted pin-ups for the calendar companies Louis P Dow and Goes and illustrations for such magazines as Esquire and Penthouse.

Ruth Deckard

Not much is known about Ruth Deckard. In fact, these two paintings are the only paintings of her's that I could find, so I posted them both. The small entry in Wikipedia tells us, she painted between the 1930’s and 1950’s, and was based in Chicago (as many pinup artists were). Most of her paintings were published by Louis F. Dow Co. of St. Paul, Minnesota. Until the publication of The Great American Pinup, at 1996, she was thought to be a man.

The Modern Artists
You would suspect that in our modern times, there’d be more women in the business. Surprisingly, it seems there are even less women making pinups (and even less are taking the time to perfect their art technically). Maybe it’s the feminist revelation? Maybe there’s just a dwindling interest in pinups? Whatever the cause, there are a few wonderful female artists, out there, keeping pinups alive.

Olivia de Berardinis

Widely known as just Olivia, she’s my favorite, out of the modern female pinup artists. Born in 1948, She was forced to move a lot, with her family. In 1967 she attended the New York School of Visual Arts. Over the next few years she took odd jobs to pay the rent but continued to paint and began to show her work, primarily minimalist oils on canvas. By 1974 financial pressures induced Olivia to seek out commercial art work, painting beautiful women for periodicals and paperback publishers. In a short time Olivia secured regular work painting erotic fantasies for men's magazines.
With her husband, Joel Beren, Olivia developed a small publishing company, which mainly published her work as greeting cards. In 1984 Olivia met Robert and Tamara Bane and signed her first fine art publishing agreement with Robert Bane Publishing. In 1987 the Tamara Bane Gallery in Los Angeles opened its doors with a gala one-woman show of Olivia's artwork. Robert Bane Editions remains the exclusive publisher and representative of all of Olivia's original paintings
Olivia’s work is rendered in a more modern style, typical of the 1980’s. She’s painted an extensive collection of Betty Page tributes, and she’s just as much a pinup artist as a fetish fashion designer.

Elizabeth Austin

An air-brush artist, Elizabeth Austin paints on almost everything, from motorcycles, to helmets, to surfboards. She first got hooked on pinups, when she stumbled upon her uncle’s stash of girlie mags. Self taught, Austin first show-cased her art at the Chicago V.A.M.P show in 2001. She almost sold out, that very first show. Lately she also became a licensed tattoo artist. Austin’s work features women in a typical 1980’s style. I don’t regard all of it as pinups as it lacks the fun, or just the technical aspect of a full-shot image.

Jennifer Janesko

Jennifer Janesco started exhibiting her sensual work, after graduating from Stephens College with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Playboy magazine featured illustrations by Janesko in the June 1998, March 1999, March 2000 and February 2001 issues. Her art has been showcased by Maxim magazine, Femme Fatales, PINUP and took the cover of a Scream Queens issue, Desire and Skin Two of England, Marquis Fetish Images and OTO of Germany, AIR Brush-Action, Airbrush Art + Action and Airbrush magazines, Television stations such as FOX and MSNBC. Janesco is also scheduled to appear in the second "New American Pinup" hardcover book, which will feature notable modern pinup artists.
Janesco’s work is hard-rendered, almost graphic. Reminiscent of 1980’s rendering and only softened by the vulnerable expressions on her model’s faces.

Jessica Dougherty

Dougherty is the youngest artist in this list, and you can actually see her get better with every painting. An accomplished artist, her work has been shown at the Echo Gallery in Chicago, IL, alongside Olivia de Berardinis’, at the Echo Gallery with fellow pinup artist Lorenzo Sperlonga and fantasy and pinup artists The Brothers Hildebrandt. Also collected by the MOP Pin-up gallery in Readlyn, Iowa, as well as by private collectors.
Dougherty’s style is very crisp and modern and couldn’t have been done by anyone, who didn’t grow up in the 1990’s. Each model is distinctly different from the other, as you can see from Dougherty's impressive site.

All the information in this post is taken from The Pinup Files, unless stated otherwise.