Jessie Lilac Blog

Thankyou so much for your visits and lovely comments :) and a big welcome to new followers! I don't have as much time as usual during the school summer holidays to blog as much as I'd like to but I hope to carry on producing small illustrations such as the one above. This is my submission for this week's Illustration Friday.

It's amazing the therapeutic value of a walk in nature. A time to dig down into the cobwebs that lurk in the corners of my life. To brush them away with the fresh breeze in the air. The place where the trees of my childhood surround me, grounding me.

The word this week is breakfast , I didn't really want to draw what I eat for breakfast myself, which is a bowl of Country Crisp with raspberries, so this is what I ended up drawing instead. Oops! I've just realised I forgot to draw the saucer that should be with the teacup! I think the lady with the plait is discussing the owl that's in the other lady's bowl of fruit. What do you think?

Here's my youngest daughter with my granddaughter on the steam train in Devon a few days ago. It still feels odd saying 'granddaughter'. I'm not the usual stereotypical granny you know! I used to think I ought to behave like a grown up but gave up years ago. Maybe that's a good thing when you're an artist? What do you think? ~~~~ I thought I'd show you my four paintings I have for sale at very, very low prices on Ebay (£4.99!). They are all original watercolour paintings by me and they end this sunday. Please click here to see more details :o) The bottom right one of the 'mud pack' has its bottom bit cropped, I've only just noticed that. It's completely intact in real life of that I can assure!

I've been a bit quiet here lately because we've been lucky enough to go to Devon for a few days. The weather changed the day we got there from last week's bakingly hot sun all day every day, to days of driving rain and then sunshine throughout the day. The best thing about changing weather is the amazing light you get in the evenings. Time to doodle a couple of pages in my sketchbook too!

As you might already know, I have an obsession with colour, the more the better. That's why I love the rainbows I get from my crystals! They make me smile every morning :) There was a time my paintings had every colour of the rainbow in them but now I love to try out simpler colour schemes. Here you can see how I've used just green and red as the main colours. Did you notice that I enjoyed painting the cat in the last post for Illustration Friday so much it inspired me to paint this giant cat too and this time he's accompanied by his adoring friend with a chorus of singing birds in the trees beyond! I'd like to offer this painting for sale at the price of just £20 (that's approximately $30 at the time of writing). >^..^ The measurements are approx. 29 x 22cm (about 11 x 8") and I use top quality paper and watercolours. >^..^ If you'd like to offer my Giant Red Cat a new home, just email me at jessicastride(at)hotmail.co.uk >^..^ He is house tra...

I'm thinking of giant cats. I think the heat has got to me. Here's a quickie I did and if I have time I'll do a longie too! In case you were wondering why it's so big, this week's word is ' giant '. He looks a bit worried doesn't he poor thing. I wonder what she's asking him?

We went to visit my brother at the weekend and on our evening walk saw a hare, a deer, foxes and the best treat of all, a barn owl! Our walk took us to a place called Barbury Castle . Each year around the time of the solstice we meet up and walk around the perimeter of the iron age hill fort watching the sun go down. When I got back I couldn't resist playing with this photo, fiddling with the colours. The copse of trees looked so magical in real life, the photo I took looked too ordinary so I decided to 'magic' them up again!