Jackie Adshead - Where my life and art are intertwined

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Beware of the greys they can attack you when you least expect it

Being a creature who loves fresh air all through the year, I decided when I got to a natural break earlier on this afternoon that I would go for a short walk to stretch my legs, took one look at the mizzlingly depressing weather with the rain battering against the windows and decided it would be far more sensible to stay in. Made myself a cup of tea, and munched my way through one of my delicious  freshly home-made mince pies as I sat looking at the greyness through the glass whilst contemplating the dullness of the day…

 I think I prefer yesterdays freezing cold but bright blue skies than this miserable greyness that makes the day seem twice as long.

And that made me think more about the colour grey. It’s a colour that isn’t a proper colour as far as I’m concerned. Not like red, green or yellow. They’re PROPER colours with an importance.

I know someone close to me who told me that she has recently painted one of the important rooms in her house a pale grey colour. And I wasn’t surprised to hear it, since I know her life is very strained and difficult and she has a lot of stress and challenges in her day to day life. She would take comfort in the grey since it matches her circumstances.  There is no way that I’d chose a pale grey, or any other shade of grey, for any room in my house. Its waaaaay too depressing.

Grey is a colour you use to make other colours look brighter – like against gold, yellow, or orange, or fuschia pink.

 

I like non-grey colours. I like the way they make me feel….

This week I was in a local city and went in search of a new winter coat. I ideally wanted a replacement of the black winter coat that I’ve had for a while, and worked my way through the rails of any shop that seemed likely to have what I was looking for. I knew I wanted a knee length wool coat, not double breasted, in a darkish colour, and certainly not cream or beige. After that, I wasn’t too specific about exactly which colour…..  and found a couple that I liked in a large department store, and went to try them on. One had a strangely designed collar to it that looked odd if it wasn’t buttoned up to the neck, so turned to the other one. And the effect was superb. I loved it! I loved it so much I didn’t want to take it off! So, happily went to the service desk to buy it, and as the chatty girl behind the counter took my payment, she smile at it, and me, and responded with a “Oooh, isn’t that a loverly colour, it really cheers you up doesn’t it!” and I smiled at her bouyant enthusiasm.

When I got home, I hung it up in my bedroom, and left it there for three days in full sight, not that I was being lazy about not putting it away, but because I liked looking at it! It made me feel happy.

Last night, my fella and I went out for a drink with friends, in a frosty minus two temperature and I happily put my new winter coat on and instantly felt snuggly and warm in it as we walked through the town. And told him joyfully how much I liked it! Which made him smile at my enthusiasm, and amused me that it amused him.

Cos I know that a lot of the reason that I love that coat so much is because of the colour. It makes me feel happy. It makes a statement. It’s a joyful colour.

Its not grey.

Its a rich purple.

 

 

 

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.