Jessie Lilac Blog

  I've treated myself to some brand new water soluble crayons! They're from Caran D'ache and are called Neocolor II. When you add water they act like watercolours so they're very adaptable. I had a small set that I'd bought a while ago but this meant that the colours I really wanted (see pic!) weren't necessarily there. The JOY I had of finding them for sale individually! As soon as I brought them back I wanted to try them out. You can see in the top pictures and below a couple of pages in my sketch book where I used my new delicious colours! I could just carry on using these new ones for ever, never needing any others because they mix together so well! (..but you know me, I won't!) Well that's all for now as I'm still away for a bit. My shop will reopen again on Friday, have a great week! xx

I love my new green paints that I bought recently and I want to thank you for your lovely comments. I find them uplifting and encouraging, thankyou! I have very low energy at the moment but on the good side, I do have the desire to work on a finished painting. There are ideas ticking away in my head but instead of pushing myself into it, I'm being gentle on myself and making small sketches, going with the flow and seeing where it takes me. Of course when this happens the images tend to express how I'm actually feeling and if you look at these sketches you don't need me to tell you! It's a beautiful hot sunny day here today, I hope where ever you are, you have a lovely relaxing weekend. xx

I love all the new bright green foliage this time of year don't you? I couldn't resist taking this picture the other day. It had just stopped raining and the geraniums were such a lovely bright green. (I'm quite partial to that delicious lilac too!)  ;) I'm still going through a bit of a lull with working on finished paintings right now but I have been sketching in my sketchbook and to boost my motivation, I treated my self to some lovely emerald paints! I've had a craving for bright emerald for a while and I've tried to mix it from the colours I already have but none of them achieved the clear brightness that I'm looking for. It's silly that for a long time I felt guilty buying green paint instead of mixing it. (Thanks art lessons from way back!) Why did I hang on to this belief for so long?!  I love my new paints. :)

Here's a little sketch I did of Brixham Harbour. I love to do pen and ink with watercolour. I must do more. :) We were at the Brixham Pirate Festival over the weekend.   Middle daughter's boyfriend had caught some real mermaids. (Ok, so he made them, they're good aren't they?) :) There were hundreds of pirates, even dogs and babies were dressed as pirates! Lots of music too! Here's the band  Blunderbuster . (Sorry about the sound quality!) In past years, Brixham has attempted to break the world record of the most pirates together in one place. I believe Hastings hold the record as I write but this could change because sea-side towns all over the UK have similar events. This year Brixham attempted to have the most pirates dancing the hornpipe. Some volunteers from the audience helped to demonstrate it and I happened to have a ringside seat, so I did a mini video... I really don't think the Dancing the Hornp...

Thankyou so much for all your helpful comments on my last post, you are amazing. ♥  I know all artists go through creative slumps and this is by no means my first (or last!) My art might have been at a low but my crochet is still going strong. I've just finished another large colourful blanket as you can see. :) I feel as though I'm slowly coming out the other side of the slump now thank goodness. When other artists share how they got through their own bad patch I'm always eager to know how they did it, so I'm going to share with you some of the things I did that have helped me. 1. No Pressure The pressure of having to produce something to sell was making me freeze in fear. I knew that I had to take the pressure off and forget that I had to make a finished piece. 2. Make Art I know from past experience that it's a bad thing for me to have too long a break from actual drawing or painting. This is the case even if I've spent those days filling my ...