Jessie Lilac Blog

 Most mornings when I have time I like to fill a page of my sketchbook with colour. It's become more of an art journal than a sketchbook because I'm making intuitive images, shapes and colours that come from somewhere that I'm not entirely conscious of when I'm in the process. For instance, if I feel like I need to see lime green and pink then I make a drawing using it. I sometime have an idea of making a random background and then layering on top to define areas, like with these leaves above. I then add some more detail to it with pens. Souffle pens are great for drawing over a dark area. The pigment turns out a lot lighter when it dries. And then some days I sit back and look at what I've drawn and I wonder, "Why fish?" Maybe it's the influence of the sea! I've made a short little video of some of my time in early May. I hope you enjoy.xx PLEASE CLICK HERE TO WATCH

I often find my art influenced by the sea which might not be surprising as I live near the coast in Devon but since I can remember I've always loved stories about mermaids and selkies. I saw the film Miranda  starring Glynis Johns when I was very tiny and the memory of it has always remained with me. When I'm near a rocky coastline I always imagine what it must be like to live nestled in a rock pool and to escape into the secret underwater world just like Glynis Johns! Does anyone remember Aqua Marina from the children's TV series  Stingray ? I have a very faded memory of her but I do remember that for me it was the best part of the show. I've just looked it up on Youtube and it's nothing like how I remember but something about it must have stayed with me even at that very young age. Anyway, years later I watched film 1984 film  Splash with Daryl Hannah as the mermaid. I loved how she had to learn about living in the human world and learnt how to...

Hello there! It's been a while hasn't it? Sorry about that, I've been spending most of my social media time on Instagram and getting particularly hooked on Instagram Stories. Have you discovered them yet? It's my new obsession! My username on Instagram is @jessiespainting if you'd like to pop over and say hello, I'd love to see you! So today I'd like to show you the latest page of my sketchbook. I've recently been using a limited palette and this one has just 4 colours, I think it works quite well. If I make myself stick to a limited number then it stops me from going overboard with all the colours of the rainbow which is something you'll already know if you've visited here before.  Of course there's nothing wrong with making a painting with lots of colour and I still do that too as you'll see in a moment. You might remember this 7 x 10 inch painting I did last year on canvas board. I was having a sort out last week and...

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...

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...

'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...

I'm very happy to say that I've finished the painting I've been working on over the past few weeks, yay!  Sometimes a painting can take so long that I imagine it'll never reach the end! This one was made during some challenging personal times and maybe that's one of the reasons it took me so long to finish. The strange thing is, that throughout the making of it I kept on thinking of the word 'peachy' and although I felt far from peachy, I decided it would make a nice title for it so I've decided to call it 'Feeling Peachy'! Here's what it looked like at the very beginning, acombination of collage papers and acrylic paint. I fell in love with that beautiful patch of orange quite quickly and my feelings didn't change as you will see! I painted the sky mauve and the beginnings of buildings and trees were appearing. Here's a close-up showing the house I painted, a stage further than the last picture, it looked li...