Jessie Lilac Blog

These are my first ever peas I've grown, so please don't laugh at how few there are! All the other plants were eaten by a slug army. I should have known better and next time I will, you can be sure of that! Here's a watercolour painting I did of a guitar playing bird, even the plants are dancing to the lovely birdsong! It's approx. 29 x 21cm in size and painted with the best quality materials. I'm selling it on Ebay for next to nothing and the bids end on sunday 4th July at 13:59 BST, so here's a chance to pick up my paintings for very little, I just want them to go to loving homes :) CLICK HERE if you think you might have a loving home!

This must have been the hottest weekend we've had for a long time, I'm not sure if I feel envy or pity for those at Glastonbury Festival! Ok...envy. Anyway, I'd recently heard a local garden that had become open to the public and what a find! It's called Hanham Court . It has to be a little piece of heaven. Like most photos these don't do it justice but I am drooling over those delskinnybums...oops I mean delphiniums. Some welcome water. I can only dream..............!

The moon is the earth's natural satellite and don't I just know it today! I've really felt the force of the full moon affecting everything I've been trying to do! But I did end up making this painting so all's well that ends well. Thankyou for bearing with me through my ordeal, it was so reassuriong to hear from you and to know I'm still functioning in the Bloggesphere. I do hope my older comments from you come back from the stratosphere, they are very precious to me. Thankyou for your patience :)

Hello! I'm trying to stay cheerful because I've changed my blog name which I was quite excited about but somewhere along the line all my past lovely comments from you that were previously there have disappeared! Does anyone know what's happened? Did I delete them by accident? I didn't think I did, could anyone be kind enough to check your followers list too to see if I'm still there? Thankyou so much, I'm in a bit of a pickle!xx :(

First of all I must apologise for getting behind with my blog visiting. I seem to run out of time to do everything at the moment. I'm coming to see you as soon as I can because I can't wait any longer to see what you've been up to! The days have been long and sunny but I haven't even had the time to sit here in my garden! The Bluebird of Happiness While you're here, can I mention I'm having a sale of my newest paintings on Ebay . Please have a look if you've a moment, they're all painted on good quality paper with lovely bright watercolours! The Bluebird of Happiness (above) is one of them. You may have noticed, I love to paint birds and because of this I've been thinking about a change in Blog name. The Purple Treebird. What do you think?

We spent the weekend in London visiting my eldest daughter. Here are my eldest and youngest together. They're very similar in personality and get on really well despite the ~h u g e ~ gap in ages! Back home, yesterday was sunny and rose fragranced. and before I pop off to tackle this week's Illustration Friday drawing, here's one of the life drawings I did on friday :)

Here's my illustration for Illustration Friday . I thought about water but finally decided ripples in the hair would be fun to do!

I'm getting frustrated with Blogger today. They've changed the settings yet again! I just about get used to the links at the top but now there's a new one called 'design' and when I click it, I get taken to a scary unfamiliar page where I'm just going to have to hyperventilate for a while............ .... .......... ... ............ Ok .......... I've added a list of links to the sidebar but that took me so long to do! Why why why do they need to change it? Here is a page from my sketchbook I did yesterday in the sun and also managed to burn my neck in the process. Silly me, I had my hair up, that'll teach me! I'm now off to tackle this week's Illustration Friday which is 'Ripple'. I've just realised it's thursday already so I'd better get a wiggle on!

My builders have finished and now I have no more excuses why I can't 'concentrate' to get on with some painting. While they were here they chased my muse away and she can't find the door to come back! If I was to give other people in this position advice I'd say "get back on that page and just doodle!" So I did.

Let me introduce you to my friend Peri who is also an artist. I went to visit her exhibition on saturday where she was showing her beautiful hand-painted silk cushions and I took a few pictures while I was there as you can see. We met several years ago at a life drawing session and have remained friends since then. We're doing a Photoshop course together too at the moment which is great because we get the chance to meet every week! Each cushion is individually sewn and painted by hand. A lovely exhibition!

A morning of life drawing resulting in some sketches. Some quickies.... some longies.... and morphing the 2 together to get this! Curtesy of The magic of Photoshop . Happy weekends to you!

These little paintings were made in my sketchbook while I waiting for the 'Trail' painting to dry. It's been ages since I've sat down to do any painting like this as it's been difficult to concentrate with builders in the house. I've made good use of the time though. There's been plenty of crocheting and I've also been renovating sad old tables in dire need of a make-over. Both tables were old but not in a nice antiquey sort of way, more like an Argos from the 1980's. Perhaps nice at the time but definately seen better days! If you've read this blog in the past, you'll know I usually paint my furniture in bright colours and patterns but not this time! A radical change for me. White! I love it, it's so clean and fresh and bright. Oh I forgot to mention the ottoman I'm fixing up too. You can see it in the background awaiting its new top. Maybe it's a reaction to all the mess I've put up with. They're nearly done!

My builders have finished, well almost . All they need to do is to varnish the doorstep but it's raining so heavily today I can't blame them for packing up and going! Well this has given me the opportunity to sit down and to do Illustration Friday , yay!

I love to knit and crochet and usually have something 'on the go' don't you? This girl is having fun and totally oblivious to the holes she's making. This is an original watercolour of mine and I'm selling it on Ebay finishing this sunday. CLICK HERE to see more details :o) We're having lots of work done to the outside of our house at the moment. This is the view of the back and you can see my studio/bedroom at the top there. That part's been painted and as I write this they're busy repairing the front wall and putting new windows in place of the two you see on the next floor down. It's major disruption but it'll be bliss when it's done!