Jessie Lilac Blog

This top picture I started by drawing a circle within a circle. I found that having a particular shape to fill was easier than filling a rectangle which is the usual shape for a picture isn't it? Would you like to see some more pages from my sketchbook that were done in the past few days? Here's a 2 page spread where I used just black pen and experimented with different shapes and patterns. The painting on the lefthand page was copied from a book about Beatrix Potter that I'm reading at the moment, from one of the illustrations of her watercolour studies. Since she was very young she did many studies from nature, the book has loads of lovely illustrations of her early work as well as the more well known paintings. I should blog about it one of these days but for those of you who can't wait that long ;) it's called Beatrix Potter, 188-1943, The Artist and her World. Published for the National Trust by F.Warne & Co. Here are some close ...

I've just returned from somewhere that I've never visited before but have often wondered what it was like there,  The Lake District , in northwest England.  Coniston Water It's a long drive, about 4 hours north but well worth the journey. The weather was quite overcast, apparently they get a lot of rain there but that's a good thing when you see how very green it is!   Lake Windermere We found a lovely place to spend the evening, at the edge of Lake Windermere is  Waterhead . The sun peeped out for moments while I took these pictures. Not far from Lake Windermere is a farmhouse built in 1626 called  Townend . The interior is so lovely, here are some photos I took while I was looking around. the kitchen The large glass jar would be filled with water and placed in front of the candles to magnify the light on dark days and evenings. Great idea, I must try that sometime.  Lovely carving...