Moving on

I've moved my blog onto my new website.

So you can now find it at www.jackieadshead.co.uk/blog

Hope to see you there!

The unique gift of paper, in a very sexy but elegant manner

She came to collect her drawing yesterday, as we'd agreed, and to see it for the first time. Up to then she'd only seen it as an email attachment on her blackberry but was very pleased with it she told me over the phone.

I welcomed her in to the house, out of the steadily pouring rain, and ushered her through to my studio and went through my work process as I showed her the photos I'd used as my source material, two of them she had sent to me set in her bedroom, and the other two were ones I'd taken whilst she was with me in my bedroom  a couple of weeks ago (since that was the best setting in my house to use as the basis for drawing her in real life), and then I showed her the drawing I had done from them.  It looks like a simple drawing, but it was actually difficult to pull all the information together to make it look simple! But I suppose that's the secret to good art, when something looks appealingly simple, regardless of whether it was to create it or not.

I unveiled it for her, and watched her face as she viewed herself and the picture I had created for her.  And watched her as she looked and looked at it, drinking in the image of herself that I had created for her to give to the man she loves. She bit her lower lip as she looked at it, and said "Do you think he'll like it?" and I smiled at her, and said "Why wouldn't he...?" and then went on to say in more depth "It's a lovely image, regardless of who is in the picture. Most men would find this a very appealing picture, because of the way you're standing in it, the nape of the neck is very sexy when its revealed like that by lifting the hair up, its a lovely drawing, and the two versions of you are pulled together through the use of the mirror, its set in your bedroom, infront of your mirror, with you, doing something you do naturally, and which your husband loves to see you doing, and you're lovely, so why would he not love it...?"

She nodded at me, still not fully convinced I could see, but I know a lot of women have doubts about their body size, and appealing desireability, but those doubts are mainly in their heads.  I have asked her to let me know her husbands reaction when he sees it, and she has agreed happily that she will.....

She's happy for me to show the  image on my blog, but wants her name to remain off it, which is a fair request, since its a private picture. But a very sexy and charming one, I think.......

And an absolutely perfect idea for a first wedding anniversary gift from a wife to a husband..... the gift of.....

Paper............

Saved by a kiss

It's been a week. Of illness and sore throats and feeling like shit. I've no idea of where the spiteful virus came from, knocking me for six with its casual ease. To start with I thought it was just the first cold of the winter, but two days later when I felt I was swallowing razorblades, I felt the easiest option was to give in, rest totally, and recover slowly. Thursday was the low point. No energy, no appetite, no interest in anything, and no voice! Just a bare strained strangulated whisper of communication and the medicines mounting up in the bathroom, lined up as fervent hopes of soldierly battle against the lurgy attacking me. They rallied forth as valiantly as they could, and by Friday I felt amazingly a bit better, although still very weak. By Saturday, I was bad again, with a racking cough, and a lot less energy than normal - working at 70% of my normal busy and active self.

Which was a bit of a shame, as I'd got visitors.

One of them my fella's son on a rare visit from Australia and his delightful girlfriend who I'd not met so far who resides in Brighton. Their love affair is a difficult one due to the nature of financial rewards in one country, and not the other, for one of them, but not together, at the same time, on the same continent. It's a shame as they're such lovely young people, and very much in love. I apologised to her for my incapacity, and she brushed it off with her charm and good manners and was an excellent house guest for their brief overnight visit. When her man and my man went out to collect the Thai take-away that was deemed choice of favourite food for dinner, she asked to see my studio, which I gladly showed her, in my reduced state. She loved the "Tree of life" painting that I have hanging on my studio wall, as the reminder of that greatly complicated painting I did a few years ago for a client. And, surprisingly to me she didn't see that there was couple hidden in the landscape, and was astonished when I pointed it out to her. But, it was a few minutes later when her eyes fell on to a print of another painting I sold recently, that her mouth smiled, and she made the comment "I LOVE this ONE!!!" she said as she nodded towards it, and I grinned at her, and said that everyone always does. It causes a lot of smiling faces from both men and women. She nodded and said wasn't surprised "It's really cool!" she said in that way that I knew she meant it. And she added that she would happily buy a canvas print of it, when I can sort out the pricing for it. I said I'd let her know when I am able to fully price it and find a suitable printer to manufacture them for me . And the picture? The one that always makes people smile? It's my painting of "Kiss"  - the original I sold to a Lord in Sussex earlier this year, who was reported to be a fan of my work by his secretary after he had received it and had it hanging on his wall. I mentioned this to my young visitor, and she urged me to mention on my website how many people from around the world have sent me strongly positive messages regarding loving my artwork, or the way I portray things in my paintings, or just how much they admire my talent. I am touched by their affirmation of their love of my work, and after my visitors had left on Sunday, I spent three hours or so sourcing the best of the many comments, so that I can add them to the other Testimonials on my new website.

 

Its nearly ready to go live. And has had many hours of hard work from me, and my webmaster, to get it to that state.......

Art flow overrides blocked head flow

I don't get colds very often...maybe one or two a year, which I suppose is the average for most people. I always think there's not a lot you can do but get on with it, as the cold will run its course. I'll take various medications, to help it along its way, and take good care of myself in the meantime with hot baths, early nights, hot lemon and honey drinks, and eating well (based on the old adage of "feed a cold and starve a fever" which has probably been long since proven to be nonesense, but it makes me feel better) and trying not to do anything that makes me feel any worse.

But I am also aware that some things still have to be done.

Like, commissions for people, when there's a deadline involved. And when that deadline is looming ever closer. ... .. .. .. ..... ..

The commission I'm working on at the moment is a pencil drawing of a naked woman, looking at herself in a full length mirror.  So, technically, its two drawings of her - the front view, and the back view. But they have to interact with each other, and look like it's one woman reflected at herself, and not two seperate women who are not interconnected. I know like I'm saying the bleeding obvious, but for the drawing to work, that shouldn't occur to anyone looking at it, but if it doesn't work, then it will scream loud and clear at anyone viewing it! And just to add to the difficulty of this drawing, I did a drawing of her whilst she was in my hosue last week, at night-time, and took accompanying photos to help me to continue the drawing after she had gone home. BUT, the finished drawing is to be set in her bedroom (which I've never been in) in daylight. And the mirror has to be her mirror, not my mirror, and since she felt uncomfortable being naked infront of me, and wouldn't totally disrobe whilst she was with me,  she kept her rather large knickers on, whilst she posed for me. So, I've got to draw her - in daylight, in her bedroom, fully naked, infront of her mirror, but looking like she looked in my bedroom, at night-time with the light iluminating her differently, wearing knickers.

Ok, this is going to be a difficult one.

And yesterday I knew I had to start the drawing of her, because time is ticking nearer to the deadline.

But, I've got a cold.

Ok, but you're still going to have to start the picture, I told myself.

And, so you know what was so totally unexpected?

The drawing that I did yesterday was better than the drawing I did last week of her when I was fully fit and healthy.

Er, how did that happen then?

.......the minute I picked up my drawing pencil, I forgot I had a cold. The picture went well, from the very beginning, and although I was only doing the pencil outline, it looked great. I left it a couple of hours later, knowing that it was a good start. The minute I put the pencil down I felt slightly low with cold again, and was glad to have a quiet night, and early to bed.

This morning, the same thing. The minute I picked up my pencil I felt fine, the drawing worked, its looking really great, I could do all the mental planning that I had to for this slightly complicated drawing using various source material (some of which she had sent to me) to create something that has never existed in real life, but I have to make it look effortlessly like it has done (being of the woman naked in her bedroom, in the morning, looking in the full length mirror).

So, how does that work then?

I've no idea, but it does do! Thank goodness.

AND, the drawing looks better than the one I did when she was standing infront of me!

Making an exhibition of myself

I made the acquaintance of a new friend the other week, and liked her very much. Since then we've chatted on the phone, and texted, a little, as you do when you get on. I knew a little bit about her, and her background, I'd met her man, knew what he did, and bit by bit, you build up a picture of the person, as they build up a picture of you. But, whilst you're doing all of that, you're doing other stuff too. The stuff that makes up your life, as they do the stuff that makes up theirs.

And I've had a really busy week, this week, as I've got a lovely commission to do for the woman who came to pose for me at the begining of the week, I've got to put some ideas together for a guy in San Francisco who has sent me some erotic photos and is waiting for my response of how they can be made into a painting of him, I've made a lot of new friends via Twitter, including a friend from a few years ago, who I met through blogging, and as well as that I'm updating my new website, with a large batch of emails back and forth between my webmaster and me, regarding his ideas, my ideas, the website layout, the best way of displaying the images, and a whole list of other questions between us too!

But, I would like to think that I've also got time for my friends.

Especially the new ones. When you're still finding out about each other.

So, it was great to hear from my new friend when she texted me earlier, and made reference to the fact she'd looked at my website, and suggested I look at her website. Which I did, later on this morning, expecting for some reason, to find that she was selling tee shirts from it (a slight mis-understanding with her surname in the web address gave me that impression!).

So... I looked...... with an open mind.......

And what I found.... astounded me..............

And that doesn't happen often!!!! :)

I sat there, reading her website, with my mouth hanging open,  and HAD to ring her straight away!

And on answering it - I told her I was flabbergasted!

She asked "Oh.....Why....?"

And I responded

"I didn't know you were an ARTIST too!!!!"

And she laughed, and agreed she was, which meant that we spent the next hour both of us all fired up, talking about creativity, art, erotic art, models, posing, art workshops, and art motivations, art experiences and all things connected.

And it was only during that conversation, when I relayed to her about me being hugely impressed with the places and countries she has exhibited in, that I realised that I hadn't created my own page on my new website for my OWN exhibitions!

Duh!

So, when Ieventually came off the phone, all bouyed up with talking about to a fellow female artist, I sat down and made MY list of places and dates of where I've exhibited..... and was surprised...... at how many places there were on that list!

When even my laid back sympathetic open mindedness isn't enough

She googled "Artists in Staffordshire" and my name came up.

I'm still not quite sure why, since I don't live in Staffordshire.

But, nevermind, work is work, and I know people find me from various places.

She chose me because she bought the house she currently lives in from someone also called Adshead, and the name seemed familiar to her.

She found my artwork on another site and liked what she saw.

We spoke a couple of weeks ago and she told me what she wanted.

A drawing of herself, in the nude, but discreet. As a present for her husband to celebrate their first year of marriage since Paper is the wedding anniversary gift for one year.

What a wonderful gift, I told her. Ideal, and different, and totally apt!

She came to my house yesterday to discuss it further. And to pose for me.

I showed her other pictures I had done, of other women in the nude. I talked about my huge experience. I talked about past drawings and paintings I had done of other people. I talked of the reasons why they wanted their particular pictures doing. I talked about nervous people I had drawn who felt afterwards that it was therapeutic to be drawn by me. I talked about my various and many experiences. I talked about how open minded I was. I talked about how used to seeing naked people I was. I talked about the fact that naked people are the same as a vase of flowers/bottle of milk/house in my world and I treat them all as objects to be drawn regardless of what they are. I talked about the fact that all women look beautiful. I talked about being comfortable in your own skin. I talked about all manner of things to make her feel relaxed.

But none of them were enough.

She just wasn't happy taking all her clothes off for me.

To be able to draw her.

Which made the fact she wanted a nude drawing of herself slightly more difficult to achieve.

But......

She is happy to send me photos of herself. In the nude.

Which helps enormously.

But in a way I feel I've let her down somehow.

Because, I've never had this happen to me before.

I can usually calm people with their experience of posing nude for me.

They find it a positive and uplifting experience and feel happier within themselves that they have taken that difficult and challenging step to disrobe and pose for me.

But, this one didn't.

For women everywhere

Well, the day of the exhibition set-up arrived full of golden September sunshine and promise!

The drive to London was going to take three hours, there was no doubt whatsoever about that one, but at least I had good company with my man, and we arrived at Hoxton reasonably easily. Its not an area of London I've been to before, so was intrigued as to what it would be like, and found it to be one of those gems within London particularly the area around pretty Hoxton Square, which is where Sh! Womens's Erotic Emporium is situated. I went to locate the shop and found Renee the manager there - it's good to put faces to names, to email messages, and we chatted easily - but then both of us are easy in our vocations of earning money in the eroticism for women business. I must admit Renee came out with the best comment I've heard in a very long time. She mentioned one of the women who works in the shop and said that she wasn't there that day as "She's gone to a bukkake party. Have you heard of it? It's where men stand around you and ejaculate on you. It's Japanese. I've told her 'Take your goggles!' ".

There's not a lot you can say to that one, but certainly you can't help your mind flooding with images!

Renee welcomed me into the shop, offered tea and coffee, and after a few questions, and a bit of chat between us, she went about her business, and I started setting up the exhibition. We had agreed "a few more than 12-14 medium to large pieces" which isn't exactly an exact figure, obviously, so just to be sure I had taken 22 pieces, large, medium, and small, in the hope that the majority of them would hang there. And was delighted to find one of those delightful pieces of serendipity when it all fitted, in the right places, and looked good too. So, I didn't need to take any home, they all stayed as part of the shop. Large, medium, and small, acrylics, watercolours, pencil drawings, originals and prints. Prices starting at £40 going up to far higher prices, to suit every pocket.

What I hadn't accounted for was the fact the paintings needed to be on long strings, so I had to spend an hour adding string to the back of the paintings so that they could hang on the S hooks there. But I had ample help from my man, as always with practical assistance and upbeat manner, and the pictures looked great when we'd finished. We had a quick look around the innovative shop, at all the lovely goodies on sale, before saying our farewells, and I came away feeling that it was the ideal erotic shop for women!

I had hoped for a couple of hours looking around the area, but the rush hour traffic was threatening, so after a brief but most delicious late lunch from one of the cafes on Hoxton Square we headed back north in the glorious sunshine.

But the thing that I am most pleased about, and proud to be part of, is the fact that I am a woman artist, specialising in erotic art, and my artwork is being exhibited in an erotic shop run by women, for women. What a wonderful partnership of the right venue, and the right artwork on show!

 

So, I hope you're able to go along, and see for yourself, the artwork, and the venue! Its fab!