Painted idol
Lindsey Pelas
2 paintings in the series ▪ publishes as @lindseypelas
Photograph published by @lindseypelas on Instagram ▪ source
See the workTwo canvases, and they work against each other.
Who is Lindsey Pelas?
Lindsey Pelas is an American model and actress who built her audience on social media. Her work has appeared in Maxim, Playboy, Esquire, GQ, Sports Illustrated and Glamour, and she has worked with brands including Bang Energy and Fashion Nova. Playboy named her Cyber Girl of the Month for May 2014, and in 2018 she was on the Maxim Hot 100.
In 2018 she launched Eyes Up Here, a weekly podcast with guests that reached the iTunes top 200. Her acting work includes the film Extraction (2015) and the series The Bay (2018) and Paper Empire (2024). She is also an investor in the vegan restaurant Sugar Taco.
This summary is put together from publicly available sources and has not been checked with her. If something here is wrong or she would rather it were not here, write to the studio and it is corrected or removed.
Where you know her from
- 2014Cyber Girl of the Month (May)Playboy
- 2015Role as Stephanie in the film ExtractionFilm
- 2018Launch of her weekly podcastEyes Up Here
- 2018Maxim Hot 100Maxim
- 2019Cast member, first seasonThe Hills: New Beginnings
- 2024Role as Venus (3 episodes)Paper Empire
Painting Lindsey Pelas in the studio
Lindsey (White Blouse) is the one without a layer. Everything else in this series has something between her and you. Here there is none, and that turned out to be far harder to paint than any amount of ink or latex. There is nothing to hide behind, for her or for me, and after months of painting women who are very good at being looked at, it stopped me cold.
Lindsey (The Mirror) does the opposite. It puts something back in, and what it puts in is a point of view. The one in that canvas is not mine and it is not yours. Work out whose it is and the whole painting changes. It took me an embarrassingly long time to see what I had done, and I had done it on purpose.
Between them they set out the two ends of the series: an image with nothing added, and an image whose whole subject is where you are standing when you look at it.
Both were saved and left alone for months before anything happened. Then days at a time, then a week of nothing, then more days. No sketch and no plan. Each stopped when I was finished with it, not when the canvas was.
Lindsey Pelas paintings: what exists
Oil on stretched canvas, 120 x 100 cm and 100 x 80 cm, each signed and one of one. There is no print of either. The two canvases are the only versions that exist. The canvases were painted by hand from those photographs; what they became is the painter's doing, not hers.
What is still available, and at what price, is on the cards below.
“Something stops me. Then I have to deal with it.”
I wrote to Lindsey Pelas about these paintings, as I do to every woman in the series. Not every message gets an answer. If you are Lindsey Pelas, or you made the photograph, and you would rather it were not shown here: write to the studio and it comes down. No explanation needed.
Works featuring Lindsey Pelas
All canvases →
The MirrorLindsey
100 × 80 cm
Sold
White BlouseLindsey
120 × 100 cm
€1.400
Follow Lindsey Pelas
Questions about the paintings of Lindsey Pelas
Is a painting of Lindsey Pelas for sale?
Yes. One of the 2 original paintings of Lindsey Pelas is still available: Lindsey (White Blouse).
How big are the paintings of Lindsey Pelas?
Lindsey (The Mirror) is 100 × 80 cm and Lindsey (White Blouse) is 120 × 100 cm.
Are there prints of the paintings of Lindsey Pelas?
No. The paintings of Lindsey Pelas exist only as originals.
Did Lindsey Pelas pose for these paintings?
No. They are painted from photographs that Lindsey Pelas published herself. She did not sit for them, and what the canvases became is the painter’s doing, not hers.
