Heidi taillefer venus envy and alana

Venus Envy, oil on board, 44″ x 60″(Copyright 2000, Heidi Taillefer. All rights reserved) 

This painting by Canadian artist, Heidi Taillefer, offers the viewer a sumptuous depiction of the pregnant body’s internal world.

Rich images of fruit and flowers fill the woman’s form, while her baby is nourished within a floating sac of clear water.

Heidi taillefer venus envy and alana

Her full breasts are machines that produce and pump milk through an intricate system of faucets and tubing. Like a cross between a Dutch still life painting and a Surrealist masterwork, Taillefer’s composition is lavish, detailed and luxuriant, reminding the viewer of the fertile bounty and reproductive powers intrinsic to the female body.

Taillefer describes the various meanings of this complex painting on her own website:

The painting “Venus Envy” is a work emphasizing the beauty and potency of women and motherhood.

The name “Venus Envy” is a play on words of