Jackie Adshead - Where my life and art are intertwined

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Christmas is coming, my paintbrush’s getting fat

My mind at the moment is full of Christmas. Well, one specific part of Christmas actually. My Christmas card image for this year, and more to the point what I’m going to use for it. My head is spinning with ideas, but none have settled down as “the one” as yet. When I saw my spiritual healer friend last week, she proudly showed me her lovely new Tarot cards, as much for the druid based artwork on them as for the fact they were Tarot cards – and I fell in love with them as I perused each one, searching within them for the deep meanings, the sentiments and hopes and dreams they purvey. Very inspirational, particularly the ones with woods, streams and various creatures of the forest. MMm… perhaps I could paint a picture featuring all of those, maybe…

Another idea I have is for a fox or foxes in long iced grass, the hoar frost strong and striking, making the grasses pale against the rich russet of the foxes fur, I like that idea, and its certainly more seasonal……

Then at the weekend I saw my friend, the muse, who always inspires me to want to draw her as she has one of those sort of faces I could peer into for ages, when she’s relaxed and gently smiling. She’s got a delightful inner ethereal beauty that I love to see and always immediately want to pick up a pencil to capture on paper.

 But on top of all of those ideas, I’m aware that I’ve painted some nice interresting paintings this year, and maybe one of them would be good for the card image.

Or even, one from a previous year, since there are some good ones there too…..

Or, more poignantly, the favoured Limited Edition print that I’ve already sold a print of, before they even go live to the public, the one of Venice called “Midnight blue” that’s so popular and I know people love for its vibrant colours.

Or, none of the above, and something else I’ve not as yet thought of…..

Mmm…… decisions, decisions….

I've been an artist all of my life, and my paintings now hang on walls in Europe, USA and Canada. I'm working on getting them on the other continents! My wide range of artwork has been exhibited nearer to home in the East Midlands, with the Guild of Erotic Artists at Beaumont Hall Studios in Hertfordshire, and at "Erotica", Olympia, London. I have also been featured alongside my work in the Guild of Erotic Artists book (volume 2). I love to create dramatic interest in my pictures, whether it’s to paint an unusual landscape, or just to utilise dramatic lighting in my figure drawings or strong colour in my animal portraits. Delighting in the spontaneous tendencies of watercolour adds an interesting and distinctive look to my paintings, some of which are purposefully ambiguous, enabling the viewer to use their own interpretation of my artwork. I also love to hide images, and humour within my paintings, whether it’s a secret message, or an erotic couple hidden within a landscape, or even an erotic landscape where the couple are camouflaged as the features of the land itself. I am equally happy painting in oils, acrylics or watercolours and love to draw with pencil or ink. I have also developed the very effective method of drawing using white pencil on black card which creates dramatic pictures by just picking out where the light catches the body and leaving the rest of the image to the imagination, in darkness. I can also utilise many different styles, whether it is realistic, abstract, surrealistic, erotic, fantasy or camouflage art where something is hidden within the painting. I'm just passionate about my art, whatever I paint! But, it doesn't matter how many landscapes or pet portraits I paint, its always the erotic stuff that people are interested in! I started blogging to share some of the strange conversations I have with the people I meet. But its evolved into far more than that now.