Brittney Pelloquin
There is nothing static about
Brittney Pelloquin’s art.
Her preferred canvas
– the human body –
is living, breathing,
and as much a part of the work
as the brushstrokes themselves.
The human bodies she illuminates
exist, change, and move in their environment;
her imagery is sometimes rendered so realistically
one cannot tell them apart from their surroundings.
It is where she paints, and how she paints – her process and her subject, really – that make her art so dynamic and profound.
There is tension between her and her canvases, tension that translates into powerful and immersive works of art.
She facilitates transformation through her body painting, renders hyper realistic likenesses through her portraiture,
and reinvents spaces both public and private through her murals.
Brittney grew up strongly rooted in Southwest Louisiana, with a pencil and paper nearly always in hand.
She found purpose in making art young in her years, taking commissions from friends and family members.
Her family buoyed her with support, and making art even as an amateur was a way of processing the world around her
and acted as a form of creative therapy.
Brittney eventually graduated from UL Lafayette with a degree in Fine Arts and a concentration in painting.
Once she later discovered body painting, she competed yearly at the World Body Painting Festival,
finishing in the Top 10 in the Brush and Sponge category in 2017.
This art form also took her to compete on the Netflix series Skin Wars, and she made her way to finalist in Season 3.
The international recognition she’s received for her work has fueled her growth as an artist.
Body painting is Brittney’s preferred practice, a lengthy and intimate process akin to alchemy in its transformative process.
The hours she spends with her subject yield an experience where internal states fuel and mingle
with the eventual bodyscape that reveals itself on the skin.
Through trust with her subject, the soft essence of the human body is allowed space to speak of inner processes,
breaking through the armor we all tend to wear.
Conversation and collaboration between Brittney and her subject guide the eventual result,
which always proves itself profound to both participants.
This process symbolizes reflection, communication, and finally expression –
the painter and the subject both stewards of this intimate transformation.
While marathon sessions of painting complex imagery onto another person present their own inherent challenges
both physically and energetically, Brittney welcomes the exchange that comes with it.
For her, it all symbolizes a deep process of change and at the same time expresses something mysterious – and often ineffable –
in a language that everyone can access and understand and be inspired by.
In this way, body painting is a very rewarding practice for Brittney and a welcome way to use her training for healing purposes.
Now a mother of two, Brittney is seeing the world with fresh eyes and a markedly more grounded existence.
Her motivation to continue exploring her role as a creator and mother drives her process anew.
More than anything, she wants her daughters to witness the power of art and imagination to transform.
Apart from body painting, Brittney applies her fine arts practice to site-specific murals, portraits, and live event paintings.
She continues to explore different ways of making art and ways of connecting with the world around her and within herself and others.
Her works are all marked by depth, intuitive process, and a hyper realistic tone.