Jessie Lilac Blog

I've been making some crocheted bunting. It's great for using up bits and bobs of leftover wool that have lurked in the bottom of my bag for years! I've been wanting to try making crocheted triangles for ages and now that I'm between woolly projects I'd thought I'd give it a go...  and here it is ~yay! Meanwhile on my painting table there have been a few new pieces taking form.. I'm enjoying working with inks at the moment, they're so adaptable. You can use them diluted like a watercolour wash, or with a pen to make lines. I love how the FW inks are so opaque that the light colours sit really well on top of the dark ones as you can see here. This one I've called 'My Blue Cat'. Please click here to see it in my shop!  This next one is painted on wood panel. I've used collage papers as well as ink and the wood was so light in colour that I didn't even need to prime it before I started. Can you see my favourite i...

I mentioned in my last post that I was working on a new painting and here it is, the new finished piece. :) It was inspired by my recent trip to Cornwall where I saw a baby grinning at me while being carried by its mother. I've called it ' The Journey ' and it's now  listed it in the shop if you'd like to pop over and see. I've had this tube of violet oxide for a really long time but I've never used it because for some reason I though it was an ugly colour and I didn't see the point in it. Why did I buy it? Well it was so long ago now, I can't remember! Maybe it was because it had 'violet' in the title and you know me, I love all shades of purple. :) But purple it ain't and because I don't like to waste paint, I'd often feel guilty that this one would stay at the bottom of the box, never used. crop of ' Looking Back '  So what happened? Well to mu surprise I found I enjoyed working with it for the first...

Here are my two latest paintings on canvas board. The thing they have in common is that I've made them using a new technique (to me) where I painted the layers of paper collage beforehand. I've used coloured tissue in mixed media paintings before but the ones you can buy in the shops are each of one solid colour. I've enjoyed using the bought ones but this time, to give more interest and texture, I thought I'd colour them myself! I'll show you what I did. :) I used some off-cuts that I had of white tissue. I laid them out on some blue plastic to protect my long suffering floor, wetted them with a water spray, and added drops of ink onto the wet surface. They were very delicate at this stage, I know this because I tried to move one of them before it was dry and it started to disintegrate! It was so tempting to hurry up the process! As it turned out, it didn't really matter too much because I wanted to tear it up anyway when I ...

Two Birds , mixed media  Hello, how are you on this December day? You might remember these paintings I'm about to show you when I blogged about them in the summer here and here . Since then, they've been on their adventures in exhibitions but now they're back, I've listed them for sale in my Etsy shop. :) 'Summer Breeze' , mixed media Each one measures 40 x 40cm and is painted on  3½cm deep box style canvas. (That's 16 x 16ins,  1½ins deep). ' Two Birds ' (cropped) I love the colours, so bright and warm. I have them on my wall at home at the moment to cheer up these winter days! But I'll be more than happy to sell them to a lovely new owner! :) Summer Breeze I love to paint birds. My fascination with them came originally from reading fairy tales. (I still like to read fairy tales!) They appear as other beings, having human-like attributes.  To me they convey emotions and are such a lovely shape...

I'm enjoying the colours at the beginning of this new season. We're getting very dramatic evening skies! I've started to embrace the reds and coppery tones that this time of year brings, so much so that my palette is now filled with them. The watercolour sketch above shows a worried looking girl, deep in thought and maybe a little sad. She'd like a name please if you can think of a nice one for her? I've asked Facebookers to do the same so that once I have some ideas, I can find the perfect fit for her. :) Meanwhile, I've started a new mixed media piece on canvas board using acrylics, ink and various collage papers. I'll let you see the finished painting when it's ready. I'll keep the same colours but it could possibly change from this, you'll have to wait and see! :)

Hello new followers! It's so lovely to have you here on my little blog of painting and stuff. I hope you've all had a nice summer. :) So the new term has started and I've actually started painting again for the first time in ages! If any of you have ever had a long break from doing something, you might know how very difficult it is to get going again. My mind has been whirring with ideas over the summer but my problem is not remembering what ideas I had and not finding time to try them out. Yes I should have written them down at the time but I didn't.  By the time I sat down to paint yesterday I didn't know what I should be painting. I think it was Julia Cameron who said to just "turn up at the page" when you're feeling creatively blocked, so I did. She also said something along the lines of "creativity is surrender not control." With these things in mind I started painting a face over a collaged board that I'd made before the s...

 I've had lots of compliments on my garden recently. I'd like to take responsibility for the glorious colour and profusion of flowers but I have to say it was mother nature, not me!  I think they're called Granny's Bonnets but if anyone knows better please tell me. :) They seem to love it here and have multiplied themselves so much that the plants that I actually put there myself aren't getting much of a look in at the moment!  Nature often seems to know best doesn't it? The yellow poppies came here from the wind too. I love to see them growing through cracks in the path and cheekily nestling between the other plants, perhaps they hope no-one will notice! I'm beginning lots of little canvas boards, layering collage and with any luck, mother nature will come along and turn them into works of art. Then again, maybe this time I'll have to take a hand in it! ;)

I do believe this painting is at last finished. I'm going to call it 'Safe Harbour'. I was working on two paintings at the same time and finished the other one today too! Here it is... I don't have a title for it yet so any suggestions?? Both these paintings are a combination of coloured tissue paper, collage and acrylic paint with lots of layering. I used runny acrylic for the darker part of the background. I like the way the wet paint makes these spots when it's dry! I used stencils and patterned paper and went a bit over the top with the fluorescent pink and had to tone it down a bit. I was developing a tendency to become addicted to it! It's bank holiday in the UK so I'm very pleased to have these finished in time. :) I'm going to close my Etsy shop until Tuesday, so until then, I wish you all a lovely weekend.xx

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...

It's only been 3 days of my A-Drawing-a-Day challenge and already I'm getting back into the flow of creating again.  I'm making backgrounds in my art journal and sticking the images I've created on top, to create something new, adding a little more paint here and there once the glue's dry. It might not qualify as a finished painting as such but just the doing  really unlocks the part of the mind that finds visual solutions through play. Try it if you're stuck at all, it's really working for me! To see the drawings as they were originally, please click here. :) While we're talking about Facebook, can I ask a question of those of you who have a Facebook Page for your work?  I don't seem to get a newsfeed like I do on my normal personal Facebook acccount. Is this normal? How do you see what other people are doing unless you individually click on them on your 'like' list? Also, quite often I find I can't 'like' other people...

Thankyou for your well wishes, I'm feeling a teeny bit better each day and the sunny weather makes it all so much easier doesn't it?  I don't have a lot of energy to paint yet but I do have the images I took last week of this painting to show you. :) I've listed it for sale on Etsy if you'd like to see. I painted it on a box style canvas and it measures approximately 12 inches square. I've made hangers for the back so it's all ready to put on your wall! :) This image is also available as a print in my Etsy shop too. Please click here to see. How was your weekend? As you might have already guessed mine was very quiet indeed but after all that flurry of sketchbook pages, I hope to make some new paintings again soon.  Right now though, that lemon and ginger tea is beckoning!