Alexis Fraser Lipstick paintings on canvas

It’s much less scandalous than lipstick on the collar, since Alexis Fraser, a Toronto, Canada-based artist, believes in putting her painted lips to the canvas instead! She calls her ingenious technique ‘kiss print pointillism’.

For her paintings, Alexis doesn’t need any paintbrushes or paints, but simply her lips and lipsticks…lots of them of all shades. Her technique involves applying lipstick, puckering up, and placing kisses at appropriate places on the canvas, dictated by the portrait being done. Little wonder she identifies herself as ‘Lipstick Lex’ on the net.

Alexis’ lip art was a result of her desire to do something different. So, she evolved the ‘kissing art’. Her Marilyn Monroe portrait turned out amazing and the whole process was recorded on a video by her husband and uploaded on YouTube. The portrait went viral and she has been using her painted lips, instead of paintbrushes, ever since!

Alexis Fraser Arts Starts With A Kiss

Turning into a full-time artist in 2011, Alexis gained recognition as a contemporary portrait oil painter. But it’s her amazing lipstick art that makes her one of a kind. And the technique is not as easy as simply kissing the canvas. She explains the process on womenyoushouldknow.net, thus, “I first create an overall sketch, but break the drawing down into a paint-by-numbers type of format. I do this so I know where the shade of lipstick needs to be applied either heavier or lighter to help give the image value and depth. I kiss the large areas and then fill in the details by hand with the lipstick and smudge with my finger.”

Despite the ‘side-effects’, such as lips becoming sore or numb due to repetitive canvas kissing, Alexis remains upbeat about her technique and has devised ways to counter the ill effects.

Much to her dismay, Alexis found out she was not the first one to use this technique. The honor for this goes to Natalie Irish. Ironically, both she and Natalie lip-painted the same portrait of Marilyn Monroe. Alexis’s works have been exhibited throughout the US and in some countries, such as Canada, Japan, Hong Kong, and the UK.