Painter Tim Patch shows plenty of raw talent. Emily Dunn reports.
Former Brisbane builder Tim Patch was finding it difficult to crack the art market until he dipped his quill in the ink, so to speak.
Under the artistic pseudonym "Pricasso", Patch uses his penis to paint portraits, landscapes and female nudes.
"I dip it in the paint and then apply it to the canvas," says the 56-year-old who grew up in England. "I began doing it at a party around Christmas time. Now I videotape all my work, because sometimes people don't believe me."
When the canvas became too rough on his "brush", he switched to paper, but has switched to a "smoothed-back canvas ... for a better effect".
He has painted portraits of John Howard and Kim Beazley and plans to unveil a portrait of Lord Mayor Clover Moore at this weekend's Sexpo.
Patch will also paint your portrait at the adult-entertainment event for $50-$100, depending on time taken.
This year's Sexpo also includes the world's first sex train. "The gerbil" contains automated mannequins simulating sexual acts and a re-enactment of Lorena Bobbitt cutting off part of John Bobbitt's penis.
"It is like a ghost train for adults," says Sexpo organiser John Ross.
The four-day exhibition of sex products and performers started in Melbourne in 1996 and was first staged in Sydney in 1997 at the now-defunct Gazebo Hotel in Kings Cross.
Ross estimates about 10,000 turned up to the first show. This year he is expecting 55,000.
"The first shows were testers to see if anyone would turn up to something called Sexpo," Ross says.
The 2006 line-up includes some of the original exhibitors such as the mail order pornography company Adult Media Group and Body Bits, a stall allowing visitors to mould body parts - but Ross doubts any original strippers will reprise their acts.
"It's not a career for longevity."
