Jessie Lilac Blog

We had a lovely time in London last week. It's a very long drive there from Devon so we stopped at the lovely Stourhead to break up the journey. Being a weekday it was quieter than usual and it was nice to see the beginnings of spring there. It was great to be able to take this photo inside the grotto without anyone standing in the way! So onwards to London Town... The next day we met up with Youngest Daughter and took the tube to Camden. In all my years of visiting London, I've never been there before and what a treat I had for my eyes! I loved all the outside decorations on the shops, even the dark ones!  This tattoo shop pictured below has amazing decorations but what made me laugh was that Youngest Daughter thought it said "ERIC from the needle"! 🤣 🤣 🤣   It does in fact look like that, I do so hope the tattoo artist is called Eric! You have to be there to see how big this statue actually ...

So much has happened this year and we're only just into March. I've been looking back at my daily sketchbook paintings and in retrospect I can see how my emotions are reflected in the pictures.These are all drawn and painted intuitively so at the time of making I had no conscious thoughts about what I was going to draw. I'll write underneath each picture my feelings today of how I see them. Starting at the beginning of the year, just after christmas and my birthday... had a great time with family still basking in the love tired reclusive very sad and worried heavily worried numb worried trying to feel as though everything's ok burden of worry buying new house plants delicate tasks out of reach and difficult feeling floaty, free everything beginning to grow in the garden calm and accepting organising Feeling physically weak mindless bunny drawing to av...

I've been making mermaid door signs. I wasn't always making mermaid door signs. Shall I tell you how it all began? It started with an idea of making wooden fish shapes to hang as decoration. The idea I had was to paint them in bright sea-sidey colours once they'd been cut out and sanded.  It was fun painting them and I was pleased with the results. I hung some beads on them in matching colours for the finishing touch. Then a lot of time passed. I liked what I'd already made but after time, other arty things distracted me so the rest of the fishy shapes stayed in a cupboard for longer than I'd like to admit to you here. 😉 So the day came along when I felt like painting some more fish again so out of the cupboard they came, I painted an undercoat of blue on them while they awaited their fishy patternings. I love this colour blue, they could have stayed like this and I could have added a pretty thread and beads b...