Jessie Lilac Blog

This past week or so I've been painting on paper and enjoying using some lovely iridescent inks. The ones I use are by Daler Rowney from their FW Pearlescent range. You can use them straight from the jar and they'll sit quite happily on even the most darkest of backgrounds. They can also be watered down to create a lovely glaze like I've done on the figure in this painting.  The little  gold dots here are painted with golden ink and they twinkle and shine in the light! The blue background area on the right is a shimmery blue glaze from the FW Pearlescent range. You can see from the two photos how it changes in the different lighting. What better subject to use my sparkly inks than on a magical mermaid! I made a mini video (of only a few seconds long!) to show how she changes ... This larger (8 x 12inches) painting's a mix of acrylic paint, inks, souffle pens and iridescent inks. I call her 'Aurora'. She's in my Etsy shop alo...

It's not too long since we had the big celebration of my brother's wedding and today, it's the turn of Youngest Daughter turning 19! As you can see from the photos above, we planted an acorn when she was born and as it's continued to grow throughout the years, as has she! It's always been known as 'Carenza's Oak'. It's far bigger than she is these days and hopefully will continue to get much bigger! I mentioned in my last post that I've started to make paintings outside my art journal. All three of these are now available in my Etsy shop . So here's the first one I finished.  It's called ' The Wishing Tree ' and is a mix of acrylic paint, pens, inks and some lovely iridescent paint. If you wish, click here to see more details. The Wishing Tree The next one is a small painting called ' Cottage in the Forest '. While I was painting this I'm sure I must have been thinking about Eldest Son's recent...

I adore colour but I fancied just using a black pen for this page.  It was my brother's wedding on Saturday, maybe I was thinking about what to wear? ;) Another drawing done in just black pens. I've been doing a bit of home decorating recently and I guess that's why the house appeared in my picture.  We had a great day on Saturday, a registry office ceremony in the morning, a Buddhist ceremony in the afternoon and festivities until late into the evening. Here's the happy couple after the morning ceremony. It's been a very busy weekend so it was lovely to relax by going back to my knitting the next evening. I simply love this yarn! It's Simply Soft Paints by Caron. I love the rainbow stitches on my needle! I'm making a little cardigan and I'll show more pics when it's done. This week I'm going to be jumping out of my art journal and onto a canvas board. I've been working solely in a sketchbook this year which has been ...

'Edge of the Forest',  mixed media on canvas.  This week I've been working on another landscape painting, this one's on canvas and believe it or not started out its life with a big boat in the foreground covered in roses. I thought I'd taken a photo of it at that stage but I've looked through all my pictures and it doesn't look like I have. I'm afraid you're just going to have to imagine what that looked like, sorry! This one was worked on in the same way as before, building up layers of paint and collage paper, aiming all the while for a balance of shapes and colours. I finally came to a point where I decided that the cottage needed a doorway.  Here's a close-up (above) of how the cottage looked at this stage, I liked it like this but I felt it needed a door. So here it is with a door and with the walls painted a brighter shade of peachy orange and the green tree to the left a little more finished. I'd changed the f...

Summer's such a lovely time for colours! I took the photo above at a local National Trust property, Coleton Fishacre in Devon. Quite often when I visit here I don't go into the house. When I first used to come here many years ago, the house wasn't open to the public but when it was, I was one of the first to have a look around. We had to wear what looked like plastic carrier bags on our feet to protect the newly finished flooring. I'm very pleased to say that's not the case these days. The house was near to closing for the day so we had a speedy look around the lovely art deco rooms, not much time for photo taking I'm afraid. But I did take a quick photo in this room. I love wood and the beautiful wood on these chairs was just gorgeous. The garden there's pretty lovely too with my favourite summer flower, delphiniums. ♥  ♥  ♥  Such colour! ♥ I'm told these are called Penstemon. ...

 The days are becoming shorter so when we get days of sunshine, it's so very welcome. The light was fleeting but the show of golden was well worth it. Cosy at home in the evening, I've been busy with my knitting needles.  Sorry for the blurred picture, the children in my family aren't very good at keeping still! A warm top for Maisy with a matching hat. A little vest for Harry made from oddments left over from a crocheted blanket that I'd made last year that fits him very well indeed. If you're a knitty crochet kind of person you might like to visit my Ravelry profile to see my other woolly projects. :) In other news... The winning name to be picked for my christmas giveaway is Linda Chant. Congratulations! :) Thankyou for visiting today! xx