Not many people can claim to have given Sir Richard Branson a bloody nose and black eye, but this mum-of-three from Meopham can.
Liz Bylett, 50, is a multi-award winning make-up artist and body painter, who brought her new Living Art Show to Cray Festival earlier this month.
She said: “I have been very lucky to work with Virgin on a number of occasions.
“I did give old Rico a black eye. I gave him a black eye and a bloody nose at one of the parties.
“I have also painted all of his top team as Frankie Goes to Hollywood at one of their parties.
“I body painted Katie Price, that was an amazing episode. She was really lovely. I enjoyed working with her.”
Liz has painted all over the world, with contracts on cruise ships, corporate gigs and demonstrations in America amongst her work.
She has been in the industry for 25 years and for the past 15 has taught face painting, body painting and special effects at her own school and travels round teaching other teachers.
She said: “I saw some people at a street festival doing face painting for kids and I thought ‘that looks great’.
“I started doing that and it just developed into making the canvas bigger, I suppose.”
She added: “I think it’s nice to be creative. I think anyone could do it.
“It’s not so much fine art, it’s more having that creativity."
This year, Liz has started her own living art shows where the best body painters from across the UK compete against each other in a catwalk show.
The latest was at the Cray Festival on July 5.
The artists drew inspiration from far and wide to turn the human body into a work of walking art, with the average application of special paint taking around six hours to apply.
Of course, Liz said, the planning took weeks and prosthetics and special effects all had to be created before the day.
Thankfully for the models, it doesn’t take as long to come off.
Liz said: “The water based stuff comes off quite easily. The other stuff, like glitter, has to be taken off with a special remover.
“There are some people who go home on the tube from things (fully painted) and get some funny looks.
“Sometimes people hang out afterwards and wander around.”
Find out more at follies.co.uk or facepaintingcourses.co.uk
Liz and the her colleagues' amazing work at Cray Festival. Pictures by Osman Deen:
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