Jessie Lilac Blog

So. I've finished my blanket and the days are getting sunnier.  It'll be lovely for cool evenings, or as a rug to sit on outside? The sun is encouraging my perpetual spinach, just look at all that greenery sprouting forth. The lavender seeds in the tray on the right are being a little more cautious and who can blame them when the sun teases us so much, one moment there, then the next moment a distant memory? My painting continues. I'm having fun layering coloured tissue paper onto the acrylic. It gives instant colour and if you don't like it, you can paint straight over! Here's another painting I'm working on. This one is using the same technique of tissue with acrylic. I like to work on more than 1 painting at a time because I can give each one a chance to dry a bit before thinking about the next stage. These are very different subjects to one another aren't they? I don't know why that happened. I know some artist

Feeling a bit stuck with my painting this week I thought I'd look at this video again of a lovely artist called Huguette Caland. Born in Beirut in 1931, she now lives in California and is so happy all the time it's a joy to see. Her enthusiam for life and her creating comes across in the film. Her work is beautifully detailed but not at all laboured. It has the appearance of textiles with lots of patterning which appeals to me. :) Let me show you some of her work, easier for me to show than to desribe! Rossinante 4 Undercover III Untitled Rossinante 7 Aren't they lovely? I'm feeling some detailed patterning coming on ;)  If you'd like to see more of her beautiful work, visit her website here .

I've finished the painting that I showed you in my last post. Above is a crop of it. Can you see the other bird on the right hand side? It looks as though that's the other bird's reflection doesn't it? As though he's looking in the mirror!  Here's another close up crop of the same painting. I made lots of layers of lovely bright pinks, blues and golds and made some scratching zig-zag patterns while the paint was still wet. Here's the whole painting. It measures 40 x 40cm, (that's 16inches square). It's hanging on my kitchen wall at the moment but it will eventually be exhibited in the summer. I'll tell you all about that another day. :) I've put a gallery on my new website, CLICK HERE to see. If you'd like to leave a comment on the guestbook page that would be lovely! :) Bye for now, have a lovely weekend. :) The sun appears to have arrived at last! xx

'Opposites Attract' acrylic on canvas I'm so behind with everything I do believe I haven't shown you this finished painting yet! It's on canvas and I've used stencils for the textures. I like the randomness of the flower design, it was great fun to do! So what next?  This is the one I started before Easter but being so busy doing other things it's been sitting on the easel waiting for me. Today I will definitely be painting today because I spent the best part of yesterday designing my website. It's got some more tweaking to do but I'm happy with how it looks for now. Would you like to see? ♥  CLICK HERE! :)  ♥ I have a guestbook page there and I'd love it if you take a moment to sign it.x My crocheted blanket is growing slowly. It's kept my knees warm on these cold evenings while I work on it. I hope I finish it before summer!

Brixham Harbour It's been a while since my last post hasn't it? It's been a very busy Easter holiday for me, lots of things to sort out and jobs to do. Today's my first day at home but there's so much catching up to do after being away I don't know where to start! So I decided to start right here and to make this blogpost :) I did manage to have some relaxing time too and one of the places we went to was  Avebury Manor.  I've been to Avebury stone circles more times than I can count but have never visited the 500 year old Manor House. Each room has been restored to a different time period to represent the different generations of people who lived there over the years. I love the handpainted wallpaper in one of the rooms, so detailed. It was difficult to choose which part to photograph there was so much amazing pattern.   It's based on   an early English chinoiserie wallpaper from around 1700. The artist Mark Sands working on t

It was a lovely sunny day yesterday as I walked through beautiful countryside. The trees still bare yet so beautiful in the long awaited sunshine. That was perfect weather for Easter Sunday but today isn't sunny at all, pretty cold actually! I hope you're all keeping snug and warm.  While you're sitting there I'd like to announce the winner of my giveaway. The draw has just taken place and the random selection process has chosen........ DENTHE Congratulations Denise! I'll send your prizes as soon as I get your details. HAPPY EASTER MONDAY :)