Art: Enoch Bolles – Johanna's blog

While I love vintage pinup photos I’m not a big fan of most pinup art. Elvgren and similar artists for some reason just don’t interest me very much, and I guess this is the reason most modern pinup photography doesn’t interest me. It so often tends to emulate pinup paintings rather than pinup photos.

One major exception to this is Enoch Bolles. I love Bolles’ pinup paintings. His style is vastly different from most other pinup artists and his girls just have an entirely different air about them. They are so very glamorous, and they are truly seductive rather than looking stupid or displaying contrived innocence (no “oops” faces!). Not that I can’t enjoy that stupid look every now and then, but the attitude of Bolles’ girls are a breath of fresh air to me.

Bolles’ style is highly stylized and not very realistic, as opposed to the Elvgren type girls which quite clearly were painted from models. The Bolles girls are purely imaginary, and they are spectacular! They also tend to wear the most amazing and intricate outfits. Pay special attention to the shoes!

Many of these were found at the excellent Enoch Bolles blog.

Starting with my all time favourite Bolles girl. I think I have a print of it laying around somewhere that I intended to put up in my makeup corner but totally forgot about.

Another favourite. I love the “backstage dressing room” motif and I love their lips, nails, jewels and buttons.

The colours of this one are wonderful. I love the red hair and yellow outfit.

Here’s another of my favourites. I have a print of it hanging in my walk-in closet. Isn’t it amazing? The hat, the coat, the chair! The shoe stand thingy!