Artist Ireland Wisdom paints on Gabrielle Richardson for Playboy.
Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus” is one of the most famous paintings in the world, best known for its portrayal of female nudity. In his book, Famous Works of Art—and How They Got That Way, John B. Nici calls it the “first monumental female nude of a pagan goddess since the ancient world.” So then, it’s only right that it’s a Playmate to usher in her rebirth.
Artist Ireland Wisdom painted Miss June, Gabrielle Richardson, as Venus, “embodying this new era” of the Goddess of love and beauty, Wisdom says. As much as the painting of Richardson is art, so is her body, which she made a canvas for Wisdom at our Playboy shoot.
“I think nudity should be fun. I always have a fun time being naked in an artist’s studio,” Richardson says of the experience. “Art is simultaneously the finish product, but also the process. There is a beauty in endurance to create something like this.”
Wisdom got to work painting on Richardson to create a “celebration of the body” and its rawness—a reminder of our sexuality, but also of our control.
“The modern Playboy woman gets to be anything she wants,” Richardson says while Wisdom painted her. “I’m an art curator and here I am naked. I can be whatever I want to be.”
Watch the full experience here, and check out Richardson’s June Playmate shoot.
