Jessie Lilac Blog

I've been thinking about why I'm drawing cottages lately.  Maybe it's because there aren't many people around where we live and on our daily walks we rarely come across anyone else which I suppose is a good thing as we're still in Lockdown and have to practice Social Distancing which has now become a very well used phrase in our language! Maybe it's this lack of seeing people around that my mind is turning towards houses and flowers? The ones above are done in ink. I love the pearlescent inks, they're so beautiful when they catch the light. The paintings above and below are painted in acrylic. I've been obsessed with watercolour for a few weeks but I felt I'd like to get some acrylics out again. I've always been like this, going through phases of being obsessed with a particular medium thinking yes this is it! This is my final medium and then finding myself being drawn to changing once again to a different way of wor...

I've noticed that there's been a theme of head and shoulders happening in my artwork lately.   I had some little wooden egg cups that I painted with colourful ladies. I loved adding the gold paint and glitter to them! They make lovely little trinket bowls!  I sold both of them within a day and I'm so very happy that they've found their new homes. When I'm painting, I often go from one painting to another to let each of the stages dry. During the painting of the egg cups, I drew a page of ladies with black hair and an art journal page using a swatch of curtain fabric for a background. The egg cup ladies are still having an influence with this one too I think! I'll leave you with this beautiful textured tree trunk. Have a I mentioned I love trees?  See you again soon! xx

My latest new paintings have definitely been inspired by the lovely spring trees that are around at the moment. I've been having fun playing with inks on paper making beautiful textures. ♥ ♥ ♥ I love the colours but I wasn't happy with the composition. It somehow didn't seem right.... ....so I turned the painting upside down!  and drew a lady wearing a beautiful dress of branches. I call her ' Blossom in the Wind '.  She's searching for a new home so if you think you might be able to help her, please click here. 😊 I love how the little twinkles of light picks up the leaves of the trees and flowers. This new painting that I've recently finished twinkles in the light too! I've used gold paint on the bird and the fern leaves. It's a mixed media painting on cradled wood panel. The leaves are dimensional, giving the surface extra interest. I've called it ' Pink Flower in my Hair '. You can see ...

It's April and today has been such a warm sunny day  so we went to visit a lovely National Trust garden. The bulbs are in bloom and although the trees are only just beginning to show their buds, they're already looking so beautiful in the sunshine. Tulips! And what a beautiful shade of purple they are too. :)  These strange looking yews look as though they might move around the garden at night don't you think? Or is it just me?! On the way home we saw this lovely little wooden hut in the middle of the countryside. I'd love a bell like that outside my house, although on a windy night it might not be such a great idea! This week has been a busy one, repainting things that need attention, getting our holiday lets in Devon ready for the summer season. The gardens always needs tidying so we had our work cut out but the views from here make up for it as you can see. The harbour's very pretty and I love those roof t...

As you might already know from reading my recent posts, I love using pens to draw with. I've got quite a good selection now thanks to christmas and my birthday ;) but the ones I love the most are the ones that will sit on top of a darker colour. This 2 page sketchbook spread above was done with a layer of acrylic paint before I added the detail with my Posca pens. These pages above have a layer of collage paper and acrylic inks as a background. I used my Sakura Souffle pens for the lighter lines but then I remembered my trusty old Sharpies. I'd almost forgotten all about them in my new found love! They don't stay as bright as I'd like when you draw over a dark background but on the white areas of the paper the colour sings. The background of these were done with my FW inks. I wanted something quite bright and fluid and when you spray them with water, you can get lovely effects and blending. Another background you can use is Neocolor crayo...

Hello there, after the very eventful and exciting week I wrote about in my last post, this week has been very quiet in comparison, I've been spending the time working on some new little paintings on canvas board and on paper. The three you see in the picture above were all worked on at the same time, while one was drying or if I'd reached a point where I wasn't sure what to do next, I'd move on to the next one. If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook you might have thought they were flying off my art table like a conveyor system! The truth is that they each took several days to complete and they all finished within a couple of days of eachother. Here's the first one, it's called 'Noctambula.' It measures 7 x 5 inches and is painted with acrylic paint and collage paper on canvas board. Sometimes I like to incise into the wet acrylic paint to make fine lines. I actually use an old knitting needle for this! It's a very satisfying thing t...

  In my sketchbook I feel free to make images. My sketches here flow from my hand without thought.  Why is it so very difficult for me to feel like that when faced with a canvas?! You might remember these I started last week... A good start but I personally didn't like them because each part of them hadn't flowed when I was painting. It was as though I had a stern voice over my shoulder telling me to "get it right" with every brushstroke. How intimidating! This is the one that you saw in the right hand side of the photo. I do love the colours but I felt I was trying too hard with the composition and that was preventing me from enjoying the process. If you're a painter you'll know how badly a painting will turn out if you haven't enjoyed at least part of the making! So I decided to pretend I was painting in my sketchbook, with no-one to please except myself, and this is what happened to it... I loved creating a...