Digesting and regurgitating

Sometimes, (no, I'll change that to most of the time!) being an artist isn't about being an artist. Its also about being an administrator, an advertising hording, a listener, a chaser of information, and being able to digest the information I glean from other places, sift through it, and put it into other more practical uses for me as an artist. So when others talk of artwork they've produced, I listen, and when they talk of the response it gets, I listen. When other artists talk of a painting they've created, I listen. When someone gives me a book to read about selling art I read it. When I ask for advice, from someone whose opinion I value, I listen. And when I've got as much information as I think I need, I'll act on it. When I think the time is right. It may not be now. It may be some time in the near, or far, future. But I will use it, somehow........................

And part of that information has been updating my website this week. Nine new images. One new gallery - for "Tarses" - I do LOVE that word!!!!! Even though there is only ONE tarse in that gallery, it is a start. The start of many tarses, I think! MANY!!!!!!! :)

So, if you want to take a look........you'll see....................... www.jackieadshead.co.uk

Fannying around

Well, the Fantasy Fanny project is certainly taking off - and I've got the Queyntes featured properly on my website now too - in their own gallery, because they shine like jewels there and I didn't want them to be rubbing up against (so to speak!!!) other paintings as I think they should be viewed alone as a collection, and the way things are going, the collection is certainly growing on a global level!

The next batch (what is the collective term for a group of fannies? - A "snatch" maybe???!!) of photos are coming in now, and to my delight some of them feature piercings. How exciting! And something that I want to incorporate if the owner of the piercing is happy for me to do so. I think that it all adds to the project in that most piercings aren't normally seen, and a lot of people wonder "where exactly?" the piercings ARE, so the paintings with the piercings will explain that, certainly! Plus, I love to see how the jewellery adds to the beauty of the area they are enhancing, and I can show that in the paintings themselves. It will also personalise the area, which is no doubt one of the reasons the owner has it done in the first place.

And the feedback for the paintings has been interesting in "real life" too - I had the chance to talk to a woman doctor last week, and told her about my new project, which interested her greatly. She said that she'd seen enough fannies to last her a life-time! (which amused me greatly!!!) but it wasn't a part of the body she found particularly attractive, and yet after she'd viewed my paintings she said how lovely the paintings were, and how wonderful the colours, and she felt it was the best art of mine she had seen, which compared to the lack of her interest in the subject matter was doubly astonishing, she felt!!!! Wow!

I also saw some friends over the weekend and was interested in showing them the paintings, as she is a psychologist and he an architect, so the feedback from them was going to be of great interest to me as it would relate to people and art. And interestingly enough, she *loved* them, and he *liked them alot* but found the colours a bit too vibrant for his tastes. They were both very interested in the art for women aspect of them, and both very very positive about them. The psychologist said that a lot of women who she sees have "dark feelings" about their vaginas, so she particularly loved the "energy" within my bright paintings.

And I'm also finding it interesting who is "not interested" in this subject too - whether its because of personal choice such as the "Thank you Jackie, but we don't feel your artwork is appropriate for what we do" type of comments. Or the, "Well I think the art is wonderful but I don't think the school where I work is the right place to exhibit it!" type of comments! Its showing me that I have a "niche market" - I just have to find the right niche to exhibit it in!!!! :)

I think that I'm starting to find the pattern of this collection of paintings too -that women "love" them, and men are left feeling a little bemused, I think.

And thankyou to the bloggers who have linked to me because of their support in this project, I really appreciate it, especially as they've all been done because you've wanted to do it, not because I've asked you to, that makes it even more special!

Hope springs eternal

I could have spent the weekend drawing, or painting or doing something productive. Well, actually, I thought I was doing something productive since I was helping to steward a local art exhibition that I was exhibiting at. And it rained... No, to be more precise, it pissed it down. So for the two and a half hours I was there, the grand total of TEN people, (yes ten!) walked through the door to view the paintings. The whole total of visitors was only 239 over two weekends. So I the exhibition didn't do too well. And didn't sell many paintings. And I didn't sell any at all. Sigh.

But I know its the way it is with art exhibitions, and someone, may have just walked through the door and gone wow over my art, and bought something. They may just have done. And that was why I was there.....

I live in hope.

I have to.

In the red

It's a very busy time of year for me - there are loads of local exhibitions on - and that means decisions to make whether to participate or not, which to go and see, and which to miss out. I can't do all of them, so I have to pick and choose which are most important to me. And then I have to consider that if the exhibitors can put a maximum of ten paintings in an exhibition, that I have the ten that I need, and usually the organisers want the information for the exhibitions well in advance, which means the paintings have to actually exist! So I've been busy painting these last few days, along with continuing with the paintings I'm doing for the main gallery.

My model asked me an interesting question when I saw her this week - and one that made me laugh out loud in disbelief! She said "Do you ever get stuck for ideas of what to paint?" and my reply after I'd stopped laughing, was "No, I have the opposite of writers block - I have so many ideas to paint at this moment in time, that I doubt I'd ever get them all painted if I painted solidly for the next year, and that's not counting the other ideas that come to me regularly for paintings".

So, when I drew her this week, I knew exactly what I was going to do and how I was going to do it. Another white on black drawing with a touch of colour to add interest. And the interest in question was going to be suspenders and that lovely piece of creamy white thigh at the top of the leg that is that is exposed whilst a woman is putting on stockings. I also wanted her cleavage on show and the hint of the little black dress that she was wearing whilst she got dressed to go out. And since I prefer to paint as little as possible to get the point across, I did just that, and added the colour just for the suspenders. The title came to me easily too, which always thrills me when it does - so it's called "In the red" because she's obviously in red underwear, from what you can see so far!

Tickled pink

I'm fully aware of the reason why the last picture I put on my blog wasn't brilliant. It was because my mind was elsewhere........ lost in visions of naked women doing feminine things. I wasn't fully focused on the guy I drew last week because I've spent so much time recently thinking about the artwork of women I want to produce for the gallery I visited three weeks ago. Then whilst I was on holiday in the Lake District I was thinking about it, and in days after I got back I was thinking about it even more, and last week I was collating the information and just about ready to start drawing them. Then I received an email from the gallery owner asking how I was getting on and wanting me to email the first image to him. I was going to reply by email and then thought, no, I'll ring him. I needed to explain it to him and an email wasn't the mode of doing it........


.......These images are going to be part of a "set" so that when they are viewed together they can be seen as a collective. But any of the images can be a picture on its own. Of course if someone wants to buy one of the pictures they will have a nice image all on its own but ideally they will have the chance to "pick and mix" the images so they can buy two, three, four, more and all the images will interconnect. That's the plan. And that's what I've been thinking of the last three weeks. Nothing else, well .......artwise, anyway!!! And that is what I needed to explain to the gallery owner. That although I had done one of the images, I didn't want to show him just the first one. I wanted to show him the finished set. Because although I'd completed one, and was delighted with it, by the time I'd finished the whole set, the first one may not fit in it so well (although I doubt that that will be the case). He understood when I explained it, and said there was no pressure, and I was happy to hear that, because pressure whilst a bit of is a good thing, a LOT of it can take away from the creative process if a dead-line is looming!!!


So, here's the first one and I'm delighted with it. Its simple but effective, has colour and enough feminine charms to be interesting. Her breasts are framed by the boa and she's in a contemplative mood. The look on the girls face is good, with the hint of a smile and the pose is interesting with enough lights and darks and angles. The feathers are soft and have enough depth of colour and form. And I'm even delighted with the title too! Its called "Tickled pink" which fits in with the boa image as well as the colours used.


So, now on to the next one.................MMmm......... Oh, yes, I know what I'm going to do!!! :)



And as a post script, I was delighted last week to be asked to write up the Guild of Erotic Artists Event day report for July, and the Guild secretary only asked me because I'd mentioned that I write a blog and he was featured in it! I enjoy writing, and find as much satisfaction in it as painting almost. I suppose its all part of the creative spirit.

Yep, I'm EROTIC!!

Incase you're wondering why I've been quiet in blog land this last week (and maybe the thought hadn't even crossed your mind, and you haven't missed me in the slightest!), I've been very busy and involved with many other things, a lot of them relating to art and my future in art........





Oh, and I've got some MEGA news.....................!!!!!





I wrote a few weeks ago about the businessman who offered to go into partnership with me for a large share of my profits. His offer came totally out of the blue and really made me consider my position and future and the way I want to focus on my art. I knew very quickly after hearing his offer that I wasn't going to go into partnership with him. Or give him half of my hard earned money. But what his offer made me realise, was that I'm a viable proposition, someone who is worth investing a lot of money in, someone who can turn a profit. And I listened to his advice - that I needed a gallery in a big city to showcase my work, for the people who like the sort of thing I do, to come and see my work, and hopefully like it enough to buy it. This made me think deeply. And consider my options, and the costs of finding such a place to showcase my work. My concern was that large amounts of money would be involved, as it would be a massive investment. And the worry is whether the large overheads would reap the sort of return I was looking for??? Mmmmmmmm. Big thoughts.........




So, after a shortish time, it came to me what I needed to do, and also how I should do it. I should look for a group of artists who do what I do, erotic art, and have their own established gallery with a strong client base, their own website, who promote themselves well and have a good following and are respected in the world of erotica. So, the very OBVIOUS place to start looking was....... the Guild of Erotic Artists. So, I looked into it and I applied.............



And last week I had a reply.



I've been accepted!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



So, I'm now a member of the Guild of Erotic Artists! How wonderful is that??!! It means more people will see my art, better promotion of my work, that I will be able to work with other erotic artists, have a higher profile and that others will value my artwork more in future.



And today my details have been added to their list of artists...... here they are if you wanna take a peek................



And let me know what you think. Is this a good thing for me........ or....... should I just go back to doing the dog portraits!!!!!!!!!?????

Split second decisions

Having spent the last two weekends gallery sitting I've had time to sit and surreptitiously watch the viewing public in an art gallery setting, and what surprised me most was how short a time people spend actually looking at art. Some people were taking two to four SECONDS to look at each painting! Now, I can do that too, for some art, because to me it might be a poorly painted piece, BUT when I see a painting I like, it'll stop me dead in my tracks and I will be transfixed for minutes infront of it, taking in its beauty and admiring the technical brilliance of it, or the choice of subject matter, the way the colours work together, or some other thing that makes it a stunning piece of work, for me. I love it when I see a painting that I couldn't improve on. But the majority of people obviously aren't artists so are therefore not looking it in the same way I do. And if I was to ask them about pictures they would say "Oh, I don't know anything about art!" to which I would reply "Oh.... BUT you DO!!" - in those split seconds their brains are analysing the artwork, deciding whether they like it or not, whether it appeals or repels, and making informed decisions about it. Sometimes you'll see a couple going around an art gallery and they'll stand infront of each and every painting and make loud comments about it "OOOh, I don't like this one!" or "That cat looks just like our neighbours three legged ginger tom, Lucky" or "Oh, we went there on holiday that wet Easter week when our Jane had measles and the dog threw up all over Grandma", and sometimes you learn from their comments......... and sometimes you wish you hadn't!!! (I stopped being sensitive years ago - I don't mind if people say out loud that they don't like a particular painting - at least they've noticed it).

But most people don't invite discussion with their companions, usually they make their own decisions in their own minds. Art's very personal. We either like it. Or we don't........

.........And what's really nice is after sitting in a gallery for two hours on my own, when for the first half hour there was a steady stream of people, then a WHOLE HOUR of not a soul, when the sun is blazing down on one of the nicest days of the year and I'm wondering why I'm stuck inside on my own on such a glorious day, until another steady stream of people arrives and no one says anything to me. I leave.......But the next day, when I went to collect my paintings, a woman who also stewarded the gallery at another time says that she adored my "A step above" painting and both she and her friend put it in their "Top Three" paintings of the whole exhibition and she loved it so much as it reminded her of her holidays in France, and asked me where it was of? I smiled and said "A tiny village in France, in the Ardeche". She said how much she loved it, and was very interested in buying it. She likes it and is thinking about it...............