Together Dead Sexy Artist Sandra Turnbull

The art of the dancer

Sandra Turnbull used to manage the Eurythmics. Now she paints lap-dancers. She talks to Joel Taylor about her art

AS Degas sculpted ballet dancers, Sandra Turnbull chooses to paint lap dancers and her highly charged and physical paintings of the female and male nude are going on display at a Bloomsbury gallery next month.
While the French Impressionist’s powerful sculptures and evocative maquettes capture the essence of a ballet dancer’s performance, a brief second of their muscular performance held indefinitely, Sandra Turnbull’s paintings are somewhat comparable.
Her work is full of movement, passion, sinews and drama but she has had little formal training and only began painting seriously about five years ago.
She says: “I used to just dilly-dally around with art, but about five years ago I got a studio and started painting seriously.”
But while she has sought inspiration from the cerebral art of ballet and dance – she painted a series of works influenced by the choreographer Eduard Lock and dancer Sylvie Guillem – Sandra also finds herself going to West End lap dancing clubs, capturing the mood and movement of the performers.
Sandra, 45, is a tactile and physical person who lives in Camden Town.
She is a dedicated devotee of martial arts and earlier in her career established a Pilates school in Notting Hill.
But a perhaps more high profile part of her career, however, was managing chart-topping pop music bands, including Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox in the Eurythmics and Shakespeare’s Sister.
Painting and art, however, had always played a major role in her life. She has tried her hand at sculptures, but preferred the discipline of painting.
The exhibition, at the Woburn Gallery, in Woburn Walk, features nearly 30 large paintings.
She says: “I am just fascinated by the human body, especially the female body, both clothed and naked, but particularly naked because I don’t think people realise how beautiful human bodies are.
“And I am fascinated in the different representations of the human form.”
Her distinctive style is created using watercolour ink gouache on paper, allowing the water to seep, spreading her brush strokes, almost creating an impressionistic style.
But she also paints on glass and uses oils.
She uses two models on a regular basis but much of her inspiration comes from lap dancers.
“The girls have no clothes on at all,” she explains, “and I am not allowed to sketch or photograph anything in these lap dancing clubs. I have to keep what I see in my mind.
“It is also interesting looking at the faces of the men who are looking at the women.”
Several examples of her work are alongside pieces of erotic art by Picasso, and Tracey Emin in Ars Erotica, the best of Modern Erotic Art, by author Michelle Olley
“It’s amazing to be in this book,” she says, “to see my work alongside all these other great artists.”
The Woburn Gallery
14 Woburn Walk, WC1
020 7388 5550
June 12-18

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