Jessie Lilac Blog

Not literally of course! I went to see Rodrigo and Gabriela last night. If they are ever in your town, go to see them. Go.

* * * * * y a w n * * * * * * * I'm tired today but managed to get to life drawing this morning. I hope I haven't made my model look too tired by projecting my self on the drawing like I did last week ! I concentrated on the head again towards the end of the session and I think the bottom one is quite a good likeness. You'd never think it to look at the main drawing though would you? He has quite a nice shaped mouth and I originally missed out the lips which made him look a bit sulky! No rest for the wicked as they say. I'm going to a private view tonight, then tomorrow looking around a local art trail which I'm looking forward to. We get to nose around other artists' houses which is of course a bonus. A weekend of art! Oh it's a hard life! ;) Hope you have a lovely weekend too.xx

I've been doing some festive themed paintings and finished this one yesterday. I thought it was about time I changed the look of this blog to match the time of year, so by the time you read this it might already be bedecked with the colours of the season! I feel the need for a new header and I think this painting shall fit the bill.

I thought I'd challenge myself with this week's Illustration Friday by painting an ACEO. I was worried about the tiny scale of them but it was fine and I really enjoyed doing it!

I clicked on my blog this morning and saw the picture of the life model (below). His expression was a bit too miserable for my liking, so to cheer this blog up this morning I'm going to show you my friend's new web-site. Her name is Sue Lawton and she's a very talented abstract painter. We did our foundation course together a few years ago. She went on to be a teacher and I carried on with my own abstract painting but these days Sue has returned to painting (hooray!) and I'm now doing illustration! Click on her name to see more of her lovely work :)

I had the most amazing night last night. We went to see a band called Gong. I must admit I wasn't particularly looking forward to it because I'd heard their music before and it didn't do anything for me at all. Steve Hillage played a support set before the main band came on which was equally fantastic. He then went on to play in the main set too. I surprised myself more than anyone at how much I enjoyed it! They had an animated light show on a huge screen behind them and what with the ethereal music it transports to another dimension! One of the main singers is Gilli Smyth who looked older than the others. I later found out she's 76! What an inspiration to us females who might think life must slow down to a halt after 50. (me) I'm still in my 40's haha (just) and seeing someone like her looking amazing and doing something she clearly loves was a breath of fresh air. I expect you were wondering how the picture above relates to this. Well this morning was life ...

There I've said it! The word I wanted to save for December but it's out there now, so here is my CRISTMASSY painting! I think I've still got the 'Unbalanced' theme in my mind from Illustration Friday. I know I've already done the frog one below, but I think I'll try to see if I can submit this one too. Can you submit two? We'll see.... I might even decide to use it for my blog profile picture. I'm not a princess but I think it might be me.

Unbalanced frogs, or rather frogs that thought they were balanced. And here are some sketchbook frogs.

First of all I'll show you a little painting I did in my sketchbook yesterday. There's a bit of a chrismassy theme going on with it and I used salt sprinkled onto the tree for the texture. I like the composition of an exagerated hill and had fun with the colours and patterns. It was lovely and sunny this afternoon so we decided to go for a walk. This building is a familiar landmark to locals by the side of the m32 but even though I've lived in this city almost all my life, I've never actually been to this place before. It used to be known as an asylum so didn't really appeal as a place to go for a sunday afternoon stroll! Of course that was a long time ago and since then has also been used as Pur Down Hospital and the Burden Neurological Institute. Dower House in was originally built in 1553 by Sir Richard Berkeley. It closed as a hospital in 1985 and is now living accomodation with amazing views. I haven't altered the photo, it really did look like that! The s...

It's friday today and that means life drawing at the Folkhouse . I missed the last couple of weeks so I was really glad to be there. Here are the efforts: This one was tricky, particularly the head! The next one was a longer pose with a much better view of her face, so when it was towards the end, I spent a few minutes concentrating on just her head. As it was a rainy day the room was fairly dark, so I couldn't fiddle too much with the details. I used to have a lot of opportunity for drawing heads when my children were younger and they used to sit and watch the TV but these days it's a rare treat!

The last day or so I've had a bad headache so I haven't been able to tackle this week's Illustration Friday until today. I did this drawing very quickly using black compressed charcoal which is something I haven't used for ages. The idea for the drawing came from a feeling of having a fuzzy head but looking at this now I think I can see my headache might be there too! I hope I've left it on the page.

I've just finished reading the book Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden. If you haven't read it already, I'd recommend it. his descriptions of the kimono are wonderful, it made me want to paint one! Here's a picture I did inspired by the book :)