Early in April, Sophie Tea Art sold out the London Palladium for a one-and-only night for her latest performance art. The event featured a catwalk of women wearing nothing but paint on their skin. These women and her show are known as her ‘nudies’ and are a demonstration of body positivity, and we love it! 

Sophie explained that her fascination with the female body began five years into her career as an artist when she decided she wanted her art to have a positive impact on society. 

Throughout her life, Sophie openly admits she has had a hard relationship with her own body. She realised she did not want anyone else to feel the way that she felt about herself and this is what drew her to figurative painting. 

However, when searching for a reference of a woman’s figure online, she noticed that all the images presented to her were photoshopped, sensual and pornographic. The bodies on her screen only encouraged the ‘ideal’ beauty standards of women, which she knew was not only an impossible expectation but also a damaging one.

Instead, Sophie turned to her (then) fifty thousand Instagram followers. Her message on her post was simple: In the name of art…Send me your nudes. A simple phrase that women all over the world are familiar with. A line often seen as a derogatory and demeaning request, Sophie managed to turn it into a request for inspiration and art. Within a single night, she had received thousands of replies. Each response showing normal, natural, unique bodies. Her two most memorable ones were one from a woman who had just had a double mastectomy, and another who wrote to her saying that she would never send nudes to her boyfriend, but somehow was happy to send them to her, a stranger. 

Using these references, Sophie began her series of loose brush stroke oil paintings as figurative art depicting these women. Her art on canvas consists of anonymous female bodies painted with strong shadows, highlighted with thick abstract strokes of bold and bright colours. 

After a while, she decided to expand her art from painting the figures with paint on canvas to turning her brush onto the skin of these figures and making them her canvas. With that, her nudies were born.

The London Palladium was her sixth show since starting her nudies. The main difference from her previous shows was Sophie started the show by sharing her own vulnerable story of body dysmorphia and the recent process of freezing her eggs. 

‘Telling my story was uncomfortable. It felt hugely confessional. But it was about time. I owed them my story.’

Following her story, her nudies would walk, spin and dance on stage wearing nothing but the colours painted on their skin. The body paint used for this show was transported all the way from Sydney and cost over three thousand pounds to cover fifty models. 

‘It was important to me that my nudies were given good quality body paint. I used acrylic paint for my very first show. And to this day, I still wake up in cold sweat from having watched them painfully peel it off their skin.’

In previous shows her models selected colours beforehand based on colours that signified traits that best described themselves, such as purple being the colour of loyalty and creativity. However, for this show, the women chose whichever colours they wanted. Some went by their favourite colours, whilst other chose colours that represented their home or nationality. 

‘It was very important to us that no one felt alone in this.’ Sophie added, ‘We paired the women up based on their experience with being nude, usually with someone in a similar position, or someone with the exact opposite experience.’

Many of the women expressed feeling nervous or even petrified before the show, yet they all admitted afterwards that they didn’t feel naked on stage. They figured it was perhaps due to the body paint or the overwhelming support and compliments they received from the audience. Each model told Sophie that they left the experience feeling significantly better about themselves.

‘I had a strong sense of duty of care for my nudies, I knew some of them had never done something like this before. They had jobs and families.’

Sophie insists on checking up on her models during each phase of the process. From the moments leading up to the stage to waiting for their consent before posting content, to even keeping contact after the show, to ensure none of them was feeling blue from the comedown of the adrenaline rush. To this day, Sophie still stays in touch with each of her models.

For her next project, Sophie has plans to build a huge public sculpture. Her priority is creating good quality work that is big and impactful. She intends for her art to make its audience question the relationship they have with themselves and their bodies. 

Sophie also has a gallery, known as Sophie Tea Art Gallery, that can be found on Newburgh Street in Carnaby London which is a frilly pink interactive experience for anyone to enjoy. 

‘I wanted my gallery to be as inviting as possible. Many galleries are too cold and intimidating. They never have a price under their art and can make you feel unworthy of entering. In my gallery, I make sure people are invited to stay, sit down, take pictures, and soak it all in. I want people to experience my artwork and feel welcome.’

You can follow Sophie Tea Art on her Instagram page @sophieteaart or check out her website. And if you are ever around in London, be sure to swing by her gallery where her artworks can’t wait to meet you.

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Maria Schmidt is a writer and painter based in Chester. Invited back by the University as a Learning Facilitator immediately after completing her degrees in Literature, Creative Writing, and Fine Art, Maria Schmidt dedicates her time in helping others, improving her own craft and developing creative projects. Fluent in four languages, has a background in dance and theatre, Maria is incredibly fascinated by the arts and determined to promote others and their own work. She has high ambition in paving a way for herself in both the world of Traditional Painting and Publishing.