As we draw to the end of 2020 I think like most people that its been the weirdest year of change,
I haven’t done as much artwork as I would have expected at the start of the year, but when I look back I can see there were a few memorable ones, I did a couple of pen and ink drawings of two of my favourite places in Kent, Faversham, and Scotney Castle. the latter one being the one I used for my Christmas card this year as I think we all needed a bit of magic and romantic imagery to cheer us up.
I was asked to do a commission in lockdown and was delighted it was of another queynte to add to my Fantasy Fannies collection of brightly coloured vibrant feminine portraits, this one is called “Queynte 23” as it is the 23rd one I have done, and I love the way they are anatomically correct, but the colours are so bright and vibrant that they look almost abstract in their design. The woman who commissioned this one wanted sandy golds, browns and deep reds for her colours, and like the other empowered women who have participated in these portraits, loved the way they are anonymous in their titles.
Since I was out of practice with watercolours and I wanted to use my new watercolour easel I thought I’d try doing a painting of a place I found mesmerising two years before when my husband and I had travelled the length of France to the south of that wonderful country, and stopped off at the most quirky of hotels in St Flour, that had the most breathtaking of views…over the roofs and walls of the town and far into the distance….I wanted to capture the little town and found this watercolour a good way of doing just that… “St Flour rooftops” was the obvious title..!
From doing that painting, it was natural for me to want to try the next place in France that had totally enamoured me when I first saw it, about six years ago, in the Loire area, of a broken down arch and ancient doorway to a chateau on a hill that was in the process of having some building work done, but to me the ancient doorway lead to a magical place, beyond, and that’s why I called it “Gateway to the land of magic” and the brightly coloured watercolours gave it enough reflected light, and delicate colouring to give it justice I think!
After six months of work updating the lounge in our house, from the totally inappropriate style to one that we felt was far more elegant to suit our taste I wanted a statement painting to pull the creams, golds, duck egg blues, and silvery blues, of the room together, and decided on this painting which I adored doing, its in a sort of medieval style of a beautiful blond woman, holding an ewer of green water that has magical properties as it splashes across the painting, and is entitled “Ervette of the fresh green water” since Ervette in old English means “Fresh green water” and I certainly want to do some more paintings in that style of the beautiful women depicting what their name means, within the image… I really want to do some more of those!! There’s some lovely parts in this painting that only watercolours can produce with their glorious bits of serendipity!
I also did another painting for me, to go with a frame that I love, that is teal and gold in colour, and because the frame is wood, and it looks weatherbeaten I thought a painting of water, and trees, the obvious subject for it, and again chose watercolours as my medium to depict it. I love it, and think it is enhanced beautifully by the frame its meant for! “Teal and gold reflections” being the obvious title for it too.
I did have three wonderful exciting commissions to do towards the end of October for a new client, who wanted three erotic paintings done of her in acrylics on canvas, all with flesh, red, and black being the main colours in them. They are all of her, in various sexy poses, but she doesn’t want me to show them on my website, so I will show just three small parts of each painting, for you to guess which part of what, is depicted! I loved doing these paintings for her, and I know she adored them as well and is considering some more being done in the near future..I love that, that the images are uplifting for her, as a woman, depicting her sensual fun side, and for me as an artist to paint her the best I can to give her that!
That’s what I love to do best, make women feel good about themselves in the paintings I do of them…
And then we come to the end of the year, and a painting that sums up a lot of what I am trying to talk about with my art, and how it brings happiness to people. This last painting is called “Tree of dreams” and is one I did a few years ago, after I had been to Japan and fallen in love even more with the pink cherry blossom that is such a sign of the start of life growing in early spring, after the deep winter cold, when nature sleeps. I did this painting in a mixture of watercolours and inks, and wanted the tree to have some magic in the painting, and I think it has that, totally, even though it is a simple painting compared to some of my more complex ones. So when I was asked in November if it was for sale, I replied that it was.. and it was sold to the person who enquired, but I knew they were asking on behalf of someone else, their beloved other half. So I was absolutely delighted on Christmas Day to receive this message from the recipient of the painting “Well I’ve definitely been good this year and I’m now the proud owner of a Jackie Adshead original! Its beautiful & I have just the right place for it.” So that was exactly the response that I hoped for, this painting has brought someone a lot of happiness, as I always hope my paintings do. That’s why I paint them, for me, and also for those who fall in love with them!
So this year, might have been a strange year, it might not have been a year of selling much art, but its been a year when I have done my best to create art to please others, and myself, and that is the best way of summing up the year!
And here’s to all we have learnt in this strange year of being grateful for all we have, even though we can’t have all we want..