Jackie Adshead - Where my life and art are intertwined

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Angelic touches

I was able to meet up with the couple who commissioned the “Angel with red hair and pagan symbols” painting at the weekend. I’ve not seen them for about three years we decided as we happily chatted over a cup of tea and caught up with each others news. Firstly being of course the painting that I did for them and their reaction to it. Even though I had spoken to her on the phone just after Christmas, and had an email from him around the same time, it was their facial reactions, and mine, that helped to convey our full reactions to the painting, and the creation of it by me for them. She showed me her phone and her new screen saver which was the painting, it makes an excellent screen saver and means that she can carry the image around with her all the time!

I was also able to ask her about the tattoo design and what its basis was and she said she thought it was ancient Sanskrit so that helped me to understand the background to the importance of the design for her.

She also asked for some of my business cards since a lot of people she knew had asked about me, and might want some artwork of their own doing, so I happily passed over some for her to forward on to her friends and acquaintances. I shall be intrigued to see what this particular painting will instigate in others!

I was also delighted to hear that not only had they redecorated the dining room for the picture to have pride of place (which I already knew about) what  I hadn’t appreciated was that the wood panelling that was on the wall had had to be ripped off, and the holes filled and then painted professionally by a painter and decorator before then. It wasn’t a case of just slapping a bit of paint on the walls, it was a whole revamp! So I was even more touched to hear that!!

I was also more than amused when the new owner told me that no one is allowed to touch the painting. Even when they realise that the texture of the wing is done in thick paint, and reach out to touch it, and I smiled and said “It’s fine, its acrylics, it won’t hurt anything as its basically plastic” and she explained very seriously that it was HER painting, and she didn’t want anyone else touching it, and I smiled in understanding. She owned it, it was hers, and she was exercising her right to keep others off it because she felt such an emotional connection and tie to 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.