Jessie Lilac Blog

I've had a very busy weekend with family and travelling so I'm sorry that my giveaway announcement is a little later than promised! Thankyou for all your lovely comments telling me which print you'd like to win. I'd love to send you all the print of your choice but there has to be one winner, and the name picked out of the hat is: Donna Maria Lynn  Well done Donna! As you can see I've been having more fun in my sketchbook with my new Tombow pens and Distress Crayons. The nibs of the crayons are quite thick, like a lipstick but I find they come into their own when used as a background. When they're dry, I like to draw with a black pen on top. The Tombow pens work very well on top of the background too. We had a long journey to make on Sunday so we decided to stop at Glastonbury for a break on the way home. It's been quite an action packed few days. My youngest son was flying back to Spain, my eldest son got engaged and we accepted an...

I've been having more sketchbook fun playing with my new Distress Crayons. The pages above I've only used the crayons by themselves without any gesso on the page beforehand. The picture of the face has a little bit of water to make them blend together. The left hand page shows a light colouring of 3 colours. Here you can see I've blended the colours of the background with some water and when it was dry I've drawn on top using Posca pens.  Again, on this picture I've added a few details with Posca pens on top of the Distress Crayons.  Now the new year is here and I'm back in the studio, I'd like to give away one of my prints as a thankyou for following me. ♥ All that you need to do is to tell me which print you'd like in the comments either here or on my Facebook page . It's that easy! I'll put all your names in a hat at the end of next week and announce the winner. You can see all my prints if you click here . I hope ...

  (crop) I love paintings about dreams but like a lot of people I tend to forget them not long after waking. But don't you find that often the feelings and atmosphere stay but the actual events remain... ...just out of reach? The painting I've just finished is called 'Dream Catcher. ' I quickly sketched out my idea but I didn't spend much time on the sketches because what usually happens is that the sketches are better than the finished piece! While I was trying to draw the lines on the dreamcatcher I thought I could really have done with my old set of Spirograph ! Do you remember those? :)   Hmm..maybe it's good that I didn't because I quite like the free lines of drawing rather than an accurate technical line in my drawings! So here's the finished piece: Like the previous watercolours I've been painting, it measures 11 x 8 inches (30 x 21cm) and is now listed in my Etsy shop . :) ******** This time ...

Thankyou so much for your kind comments in my last post! I've had quite a busy few days and not much time to keep up with posting so this one will hop from one subject to another as I show you what I've been doing. :) You might have noticed the top picture of the gorgeous poppies? Well a lovely friend of mine Peri Taylor had already discovered this beautiful field and as it wasn't very far from where we live, a trip there was needed as soon as possible before the blooms had gone! Let me share their dazzlement with you. There's always one! ;) So different to all the others but equally as beautiful. Aren't they lovely? I've never seen so many up close like this before, it was a rare treat. art journal page The summer Solstice is a time when we go for an evening walk somewhere special (but not too far away) with my brother. This year we went to place called Coaley Peak.  The weather was perfect and after both o...

Take an old chest of drawers that is on its last legs, glue the parts together that have broken and give it a new lease of life with some old paint you find in the shed. Never mind that the lid is rusted on, you can pick the bits of rust out of the paint before you begin. No one will ever know, unless you tell them. :) Paint the drawer knobs with a jaunty sea-side design and there you have a nice new piece of furniture for no cost at all. :) :¦:-·-:¦:-·-:¦:-·-:¦:-·-:¦:-·-:¦:-·-:¦: Thankyou to those of you who entered my giveaway on Facebook. The winner is  Mandy Congratulations Mandy! Sorry to have missed out my bloggy friends on this occasion. Next time I do a giveaway I'll definitely have a blog one. You can be sure of that. :) Jess x x

I could not believe my eyes earlier today when I saw that my likes on Facebook had jumped up to 900! As a thankyou I'm having a giveaway of one of my A4 prints. All you need to do is to be a liker of my Facebook page and to share the post I have there about the giveaway on your own Timeline.You can choose any print from these above, so please leave me a comment underneath that post too so I know which one you'd like to win! To see the prints in more detail, please  click here . I'll announce the winner on Monday, both here and on Facebook. I've been working on a new painting for Spring.  You might remember this sketch (below) I did a couple of weeks ago? Well I kept finding myself turning the page of my sketchbook back to it because I love the colours. I just knew I had to do a painting based on it. So here it is! It's called 'The Song of Tulips' and is painted with acrylic on 7 x 10 canvas board. It's now available to buy...

What a lovely sunny weekend we had here. Butterflies already!! The trees are still bare  but still so very beautiful. I took these photos on Sunday at Barrington Court in Somerset. I've been here once before where I blogged about it here . Last time I didn't see much of the house itself but on this occasion, every room was explored! I love these tile designs. There were quite a few bathrooms in the house, each with different tile designs. I love the archway and the old mullion style windows. This is a view through a lovely gate. I do like a nice gateway. :) **** So, without further ado, here are the winners of the giveaway! Jennifer is the winner of my Red Cat painting and Caris the winner of the Paisley girl. Congratulations to you both! :) Thankyou to everyone who took part. xx

Thankyou so much for your lovely messages for the arrival of my little grandson. It's lovely to share my excitement here with you. :)  Now talking of sharing and thankyous, I was very surprised and very happy to see that I now have 800 followers on my  Facebook page !  Wow!  I think a giveaway is in order don't you? (flowers drawn with gel pens) I'm going to pick 2 winners using a random generator who will each receive an original watercolour painting of mine, each one is painted on 300gsm watercolour paper.  Here they are: The Big Red Cat, 11 x 9 inches (29 x 22cm) Paisley Girl, 9 x 12 inches (23 x 30cm) All you need to do to take part is to leave me a message in the comments on this post telling me which of these paintings you'd like to win. If you'd like a second chance to be in the draw, you could go to this post on my Facebook page and (if you're on Facebook) share and like the post, then leave me a...