Jackie Adshead - Where my life and art are intertwined

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Capturing the Wow factor

Capturing the Wow factor

I did a bit of framing a couple of weeks ago for the pupil who comes to me most weeks for private painting classes. The watercolour that she was coming to collect was a gift for a family member and she has put many hours of hard work into that painting over the three months or so she has been working on it and personalised it for the recipient and it’s something I am very proud of in helping her to do it since it was a difficult subject matter and watercolours always make it more so since there’s little room for error in them. The pupil came with her husband to collect the painting and I welcomed them both in and through to my studio. She’d brought a Christmas card for me, as I had one for her, and as we quickly went over the painting she had done and I held it up for her to see and I told her husband how much work had gone into it, her eye noticed the large canvas behind me and she exclaimed “OHH……… you’ve FINISHED it!” and I smiled and said I was pleased she’d come and been able to see if before it went off to its new owner.

She was referring to the large canvas painting that I have been talking about this last few days and she and her husband, and my man, are the only people who have seen it finished. But she saw it when I was first working on it and had only blocked in the first colours and done some of the background. Since she’s not been for a couple of weeks she hadn’t seen it fully finished.

I explained to them about the symbols within the painting and went through each one and explained the symbolism. Her husband laughed about one of them and told his wife “You need THAT one!” and I smiled in agreement… it was very apt for her…and would help her life in a very positive way at the moment !

They were really impressed with it, as I think anyone would be. I think its one of the biggest paintings I’ve done, and it certainly has a good impact when anyone sees it…

 

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.