This year I wasn't competing which was totally new to me. I had thought I would just chill out and enjoy other artists' work, but turns out my week was full of action and activities, I didn't even have time to go for a refreshing swim in the lake! Hot and sunny week included my first workshop at the World Bodypainting Academy program, my fine art body painting exhibition, parties and jury duty at the world awards. So much fun! 

Once again, the highlight of my year was the World Bodypainting Festival in Austria. Since 2007 I have spent a week every summer amongst hundreds of artists and thousands of visitors from all over the world enjoying and indulging on this amazing art form called body painting. There is no place like this - a small village of Pörtschach by Wörthersee lake turned into a melting pot of art for a week. It's our mecca. Our home.  

The workshop "Key elements of competition design" was a success with some wonderful students, fun and laughter. I loved it and even better, that the students were over the moon! I really hope to be able to give workshops like this more, it's so rewarding to see students learning and discovering new skills in themselves. 

What a wonderful opportunity was given to me by Alex Barendrengt, the organiser of the World Bodypainting Festival, and Hotel Schloss Leonstein. I got to have my own fine art body painting exhibition at the hotel and it was an official side event for the festival week. I was so pleased to see so many people there, getting together for drinks and enjoying my art. 

I had 17 artworks in total showing. This was also an amazing chance for to me show preview of my Wonder Women - the WAU project. Six pieces which are done were introduced to the guests and the feedback was overwhelming. People loved the idea behind the series and encouraged me to go forward with the project. It felt so good and especially when two pieces were sold immediately! What a wonderful evening with some awesome people, music and art. Thank you Alex and Jörg Goby of Schloss Leonstein!

More image galleries from the event:
Gallery by Art Fashion Studio/ Dmitri Moisseev - WBF2015: Riina Laine Art Exhibit
Gallery by Bertrand Orsal - Riina Laine's exhibition - WBF 2015
Gallery by Hotel Schloss Leonstein - Hotel Schloss Leonstain meets World Bodypainting Festival 2015

Like the Wonder Women - the WAU Project Facebook page to follow and learn more about the models etc!

After winning the World Awards last year, I decided early on I wouldn't compete this year but instead I'd just have a break and enjoy the festival as a visitor. But what an honour was it to have the invitation to join the jury - to sit behind the same table with six amazing iconic artists. I couldn't refuse of course, but it felt quite surreal (Haha, it would have been good idea for the theme for the finals "Surreal- reshape your reality"!).

As I have written here on my blog before about the judging (Can you judge body painting?) it is a very hard job. I have been in the jury for many body painting competitions around the world, but this time was by far the toughest. Hundreds of artists in different categories, so many wonderful artworks... We sat in the hot jury tent for over 4 hours each day, scoring over 100 paintings each day. It's difficult to describe what it was like - it was humbling, rewarding, tiring, exciting, fun, difficult, everything at the same time. And I am very happy of this experience. I learnt so much and I think this helps me to grow as an artist too. 

Here are some pictures of the fun times I got spend with my fellow jury members. :)

The jury for the World Bodypainting Awards 2015: Ernst Wieser (Austria), Jinny (Canada), Craig Tracy (USA), Gabriela Hajek-Renner (Austria), Fredi Schmid (Switzerland), Riina Laine (Finland) and Scott Fray (USA).

Within the past month I have been sitting in the jury at Helsinki Bodypainting Competition in Finland and Baltic Body Art Competition in Latvia. It is always an honour to be invited in the jury as well as very humbling, because how can you judge art? I've seen competitions as a judge in South-Korea, the Netherlands and Norway too, very different styles of paintings and I have been scoring works by so many amazing artists. It is one of those things that is very difficult, and controversial as it is a matter of opinion. Giving points is truly very hard, and having competed so many times myself I know how exciting, and at the same time scary, it is when you are waiting to see what the jury thinks of the painting you have put your heart and soul into.

So I thought I would describe what things judges look at. In body painting competitions there is a criteria of evaluation that helps when you are facing this difficult task of giving scores to another artist's artwork. The categories in which the points are given vary between competitions, but the basic ideas behind them are similar - quality, technique, use of colour, composition, interpretation of the theme, overall look and originality.

Everyone likes different things and consider different things more important, but more often than not you can tell if someone's painting is very clean or messy for example. The technique, the brush work is judged according to the lines being clean and even, whether teardrops and other classic brush strokes are in balance and whether the base coat of the paint is opaque and blending good. It's important to have a flow on the painting, all different parts of the painting should go together well and create a good overall composition. I myself pay a lot of attention to the colours - I love colours in general. Too much black on the painting doesn't make it standout for me, but on the other hand too many colours thrown on the painting can also look like a chaos. A nice flow between the colours make even a "rainbow puke" look fabulous - a hilarious term another artist kindly used to describe my this year's final painting at the World Bodypainting Festival! ;) I love it!

In competitions artists are always given a theme to paint on and I think it's good - that way you have to put your thought into the painting and story behind it, and as a judge it is lovely to hear how other artist's think and how inspiring stories they come up with. Thinking "outside the box" is the key to finding a good story for your painting. Also in a competition it shows who has made an effort and really wants to do well. It is important I think, and maybe that's why I have always put a lot of thought into the stories of my competition pieces. This year I was rewarded with amazing points for my final winning painting "iLive - iDie" at the WBF (read it here) , and I think it shows that the story can make or break your competition painting.

Of course competitions are just one part of the world of body painting, and I think the only part where the creations are judged "officially". There are so many artists around the world, creating their own body art pieces with their own styles and stories behind the pieces, that I don't thinki it's worth spending time thinking who is better than someone else. I think it's better to just appreciate the variety and of course naturally you just know which paintings you like or don't like,  for any reason. I myself like those artists' work who create something that touches my heart, pleases my eyes and is somehow surprising or new to me.

So my piece of advice - don't judge body painting, just love it!