Body painter to the stars Barry Bish tells tales of his life in Hollywood

Body painter to the stars tells tales of his life in Hollywood

Hollywood life: Barry Bish with one of his exhibits

A London artist who made his name as a body painter to the stars has revealed what it was like to work with Janet Jackson and Demi Moore.

Barry Bish, from Woolwich, shared stories of his decade in Hollywood ahead of the opening of Homeward Bound, an exhibition of his own fine art paintings.

Bish, 52, got the job “by luck” after painting the house of Los Angeles make-up artist Joanne Gair, who asked him to join her as an assistant.

Body paint: Demi Moore on the cover of Vanity Fair He helped Gair when she painted Moore for the front cover of Vanity Fair, and later painted a swimsuit on the actress’s naked body.

He said: “My very first job was painting Demi Moore. Was she uncomfortable being naked in front of me? Not at all. People intuitively know if they are comfortable with you or not.

“I never aspired to be in showbiz so there was no desperation to me, which was probably quite refreshing. It was a long job, it took all day but she was very professional.”

Blank canvas: Former rugby player Kyran Bracken Another assignment included “tattooing” Jackson. Bish said: “Janet  Jackson was working on a music video and we were painting tattoos onto all the dancers and we painted an iguana onto her.

“Was she chatty? Some people you really gel with, and other people, if you feel there’s a bit of a wall there you leave them in peace. You are very aware that these people are very famous and time is money to them.”

He was later given work at Playboy, where he became Farrah Fawcett’s “personal artist”. “Farrah wanted to be an artist in her own right,” he said. “I was given a swipe card to the Playboy offices. I would get a lot of funny looks as I’d park my battered old truck up alongside all the expensive cars.”

Painted lady: Bish worked on a music video with Janet Jackson After he returned to England, he turned his hand to painting international rugby stars. “I painted Kyran Bracken,” Bish said. “That was the most technical job I did. It had to be in absolute secrecy because no one was to know what it looked like before the launch of the Saracens kit.

“And I painted a tattoo onto Lawrence Dallaglio’s back for St George’s Day.”

Homeward Bound runs at the Ben Oakley Gallery in Greenwich until March 30.