Meet Chelsea Hunter

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Chelsea Hunter a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Chelsea , really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

I would say that the purpose of my art is to increase representation or normalize nude bodies of various types of people. In this world we are often fed content that feature people who are thin and/or white. There’s of course nothing inherently wrong with being either of those things but I want people who have different skin colors and different body shapes to be able to look at my work and see themselves there. That will always be the main priority of my art. Nothing makes me happier than when someone walks up to a piece I’ve done and says “wow that looks like me!”

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I am an artist who primarily focuses on painting tasteful nudes. I want to show people that nudity is not inherently sexual and people don’t need to shy away from it. The body should be celebrated in all its different shapes colors and sizes. I first started out in about 2017 doing regular portraits mostly from the shoulders up. I would paint friends, photos I saw online, or pieces I was commissioned to do. Around 2020 I was inspired by one nude photo I saw of a friend online and asked if I could paint it. From there my focus shifted more towards those types of portraits rather than the facial portraits I was doing before. While I still like to paint a variety of different things, nude paintings are always something I return back to in the end. I find it satisfying to be able to bring someone to life on the canvas. It’s even more special when I know the person and can see their reaction when they see the finished piece. I have mostly worked with people online, but over the past couple years I have been doing more in person events so I can connect with more people in my direct community. Seeing people interact with your art in person is a lot more satisfying than reading comments through a screen. There is much more dialog and you can get a better feel for what people think of it! I hope to do more events in the future especially events that allow me to bring my nude work.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Looking back the 3 most important things that I think helped me were 1. Making time for my art; 2. Putting myself out there; and 3. Not getting too hung up about what other people think. When covid happened and we were all stuck inside, I was able to focus on painting a lot more than when I was working 5 days a week in person. I carved out time almost every day to practice and improve my work. People started noticing and even purchasing the things I had made. I started to put myself out there even more and really get serious about posting and promoting my work. Many people noted how consistent I was with it and that consistency is what kept me at the forefront of peoples.minds. lastly by not focusing too much on what people thought it allowed me to keep going and keep being consistent. If I stopped and got discouraged every time someone made an off hand comment about nudity on my page I would have quit a long time ago. Of course nude art isn’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but there are more people out there who like it than you’d think!

All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?

I would say I face two major challenges currently. 1. My mental and physical health has been a but turbulent since 2025 started which has created some distance between me and my practice. I love doing art but it’s difficult for me to do it when I am not feeling well. I am still trying to get back to the level of consistency I had before. 2. Social media platforms have become very hostile when it comes to the type of work I do. While my work technically goes not violate any guidelines I get flagged quite often and it puts a pause on things for sure. Even if my posts don’t get removed my engagement still takes a hit. On some platforms it got so bad that I just stopped posting altogether. The shadowbanning of people who post nudity or suggestive stuff has also.made it a little more difficult for me to find models I want to collaborate with. Certain people are suppressed more than others which can make it harder for me to find diverse models. Either way though I try and do what I can manage.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Chunterart.com
• Instagram: Chunterart
• Facebook: /chunterart
• Other: Bluesky: @chunterart