Sense and Sensibility Map

Map of Emma

Not too long ago someone commissioned an Emma map and I had a left over sketch.  It was really fun to paint and now there are 3 maps of Jane Austen's novels in my collection.

It is an artistic rendition of a map, on which you can see most of the places in Emma.  Highbury, Randalls, Hartfield, Donwell Abbey, Box Hill, Brunswick Square and Weymouth.  The background contains the garden dialogue and in the left corner you can see a miniature of Mr.Knightley and Emma encircled in a rosebud wreath.

Jane Bennet's Muslin Dress - The Process

This is my latest acrylic painting inspired by a lovely Regency dress I saw on Pinterest.  It looked like a perfect Jane Bennet dress to me.

I first painted my canvas dark and then sketched the dress in chalk.

This is a finished painting, I did most of the painting in just two colors, black and white, with just a bit of sienna in the background.  To be honest, I like it better in chalk :)

An accomplished woman

In Pride and Prejudice Mr.Darcy adds one critical component to Miss Bingley's list of musts of an accomplished woman -- "improvement of her mind by extensive reading"

In this original watercolor you can see Elizabeth Bennet, who loves a good book, reading one by a sunny window. She is wearing a yellow day dress and a blue ribbon in her hair.

A good novel

https://www.etsy.com/listing/162276252/a-good-novel-original-watercolor-5x7

This watercolor was inspired by the passage in Northanger Abbey where Jane Austen defends the novel. I smile every time I read it. So in this watercolor you see Catherine, absorbed in a good novel and in the background an excerpt from the Northanger Abbey, unfortunately the whole text didn't fit, but here is the rest of it for you to read:
"Oh! it is only a novel!" replies the young lady; while she lays down her book with affected indifference, or momentary shame. -- "It is only Cecilia, or Camilla, or Belinda;" or, in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour, are conveyed to the world in the best-chosen language. Now, had the same young lady been engaged with a volume of the Spectator, instead of such a work, how proudly would she have produced the book, and told its name; though the chances must be against her being occupied by any part of that voluminous publication, of which either the matter or manner would not disgust a young person of taste: the substance of its papers so often consisting in the statement of improbable circumstances, unnatural characters, and topics of conversation which no longer concern anyone living; and their language, too, frequently so coarse as to give no very favourable idea of the age that could endure it.

Mr.Darcy Letter

Depicted in this painting are Mr.Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet, with a little sketch of Pemberley at the bottom, Mr.Darcy's letter (the actual text) in the background and some of Elizabeth's lace in the corners.

And a small watercolor of the door to St.Nicholas' church in Steventon, where Jane Austen's father was a rector.

Another take on Bad Girls of Jane Austen

A long time ago I had a trio of bookmarks titled Bad Girls of Jane Austen. I let the bookmarks get out of print and almost forgot about them but then one day I was looking through some shops on Etsy and came across a photo of three ladies sitting on a black and white striped couch looking sullenly at the camera.   I thought they would make a perfect trio of Jane Austen's "bad girls". I lost the link to the shop, but the idea was too fun, so here they are: Caroline Bingley of Pride and Prejudice, Isabella Thorpe of Northanger Abbey and Mary Crawford of Mansfield Park, sitting together on a couch during perhaps a morning call in London.