The French-Danish Artist Tina Maria Elena Bak And Her Series Of Sensual Watercolors

Tina Maria Elena Bak (b. 1984) is an artist specializing in "erotic art from a woman's point of view," as she writes on her website. The artist's chosen eroticism as her main topic since 2015. Her example proves erotic art as one of the most complicated paths for self-expression because it requires a sophisticated approach not to show a process of lovemaking as a merely mechanical interaction. Tina says that she likes to use self-taught techniques. 

Fig. 2. Make Love watercolor #17 (tinamariaelena.com)

Fig. 3. Make Love watercolor #19 (tinamariaelena.com)

Fig. 4. Make Love watercolor #210 (tinamariaelena.com)

Fig. 5. Make Love watercolor #57 (tinamariaelena.com)

Fig. 6. Make Love watercolor #24 (tinamariaelena.com)

Fig. 7. Make Love watercolor #134 (tinamariaelena.com)

Fig. 8. Make Love watercolor #202 (tinamariaelena.com)

Fig. 10. Make Love watercolor #66 (tinamariaelena.com)

Dreamlike And Physical

As the artist states, she loves to "combine colors with a strong definition of spaces which makes room for a dreamlike interpretation of lovemaking." Yet, the watercolor medium, which allows a recognizable scene to emerge from abstract splotches, gives us a sense of physicality since lovemaking is connected with the exudation of sperm and vaginal liquids. Tina admits that the watercolor is "very sensual with its liquid expression – allowing the lovers to melt together as the colors bleed into each other!" The coloring of many paintings makes them resemble the images in infrared light, which also adds a physical vibe by visualizing the heat of copulating bodies. 

Fig. 13. Make Love watercolor #37 (tinamariaelena.com)

Fig. 15. Make Love watercolor (tinamariaelena.com)

Fig. 16. Make Love watercolor #106 (tinamariaelena.com)

Fig. 17.  Make Love watercolor #56 (tinamariaelena.com)

Fig. 18. Make Love watercolor #179 (tinamariaelena.com)

Fig. 19. Make Love watercolor #272 (tinamariaelena.com)

Fig. 20. Make Love watercolor #257 (tinamariaelena.com)

Sumi-e And Rorschach

Some of the paintings from the Make Love series may remind you of the sumi-e black ink pictures produced by Suzuki Hyakunen and other Japanese masters. Sumi-e shunga scrolls depict dreamy secret encounters looking like scenes of the elegant silent plays from an ancient shadow theatre. Balancing between 2d and 3d, between the shadow and the image taken by a thermal camera, the series of Tina Maria Elena Bak shows an emergence of the dream that gets real while we're watching it. Sometimes, close-ups of the lovers' embrace look similar to the famous Rorschach test, as the image doesn't emerge at once but appears a second later, letting you recognize the bodies and the pose. The optical illusion is also involved: one of the depictions of an amorous couple is accomplished in a shape of a human heart (fig. 21).

Fig. 21. Make Love watercolor #276 (tinamariaelena.com)

Fig. 22. Make Love watercolor #158 (tinamariaelena.com)

Fig. 23. Make Love watercolor #162 (tinamariaelena.com)

Fig. 24. Make Love watercolor #111 (tinamariaelena.com)

Fig. 25. Make Love watercolor #142 (tinamariaelena.com)

Fig. 26. Make Love watercolor #144 (tinamariaelena.com)

Fig. 27. Make Love watercolor #108 (tinamariaelena.com)

Fig. 28. Make Love watercolor #6 (tinamariaelena.com)

Fig. 30. Make Love watercolor #146 (tinamariaelena.com)

Brief Presence Of The Tradition

There is not much that can be said about the usage of colors in the series, but still, you may notice a couple of things. The artist skillfully applies gradients to create a dimensional image of the body, so what started as a silhouette painting may eventually be turned into a three-dimensional depiction of a love scene with almost a photographic quality. Another curious detail is the colors the artist exploits to show different genders. Majorly, male figures are depicted with darker or colder tones. This manner can be seen in Japanese, Chinese, and Korean erotic images, where the woman always has a white skin tone while the man is shown in darker colors. The tone difference appears in the Make Love series first of all because the artist, according to her words mentioned above, wanted to present lovemaking as a color blending. The watercolor technique shows us a process in which two turn into one. Some people may consider it a romantic metaphor for a sacral union of two souls achieved by the conjunction of bodies, while others can treat it almost as a biologically correct depiction of conception in the case of a heterosexual copulation.

Fig. 31. Make Love watercolor #120 (tinamariaelena.com)

Fig. 32. Make Love watercolor #147 (tinamariaelena.com)

Other Projects And Series

Make Love watercolors is not the only sensual series of the artist. On her website, you can find a number of other collections, some of the images from which are included in this article. The works can be ranged from less to more abstract. The series Mother Nature may like the devotees of the colorful canvases by Emil Nolde. The Feminine Rose set is accomplished very much in the spirit of the vulva close-ups by Betty Dodson. Curiously, Feminine Rose #13 doesn't follow the expectations of the viewer as it depicts not a vulva but a penis (fig. 33).

Fig. 33. Feminine Rose #13 (tinamariaelena.com)

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Tina Maria Elena Bak also contributed to the book The Secret Garden in which female (often tattoo) artists gave their vision on shunga.  Click here for more info on the book.

Sources: tinamariaelena.com

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