#9 Macro/Micro

All my art supplies are packed away ready for moving day next week, so I'd told my fellow MPC participants that I wasn't going to submit anything for this month's challenge. But then I saw all their submissions go up on the page and I got major creative envy. So I figured that even though I haven't painted this month, I can still snap a macro photograph to submit. And then I got a little carried away, and I'm not very good at choosing "just one".

ALICE JONES
"Lavandula"
Digital Photograph
 NFS

Serrated steak knife.

Make up brush.

I accidentally burned my own wrist with my hair straightener last night. Sexy, huh?

#7 Fabric Design

This was the first photograph I ever took with my own SLR camera, of a roll of mangled chain link netting. Since then, this chain link pattern has always appealed to me. I like how at a glance it appears to be a grid of diagonal wires, but is really rows of linked zig-zags. For a long time I've had this thought in my head of a crazy hairstyle- a narrow band of hair woven like chain link, with the rest shaved off or artfully tied out of the way. Obviously I haven't become a creative hair stylist, but when the latest Monthly Painters' Challenge topic was announced as creating a fabric design, I realised that if I couldn't hack at someone's hair in the real world I could at least draw my idea.

ALICE JONES
"Chain Link"
Watercolour and Liner Pen on Watercolour Paper
29 x 21cm
NFS

#6 Something Beginning With O

The theme for this month was 'Something Beginning With O'. I have made some progress on a painting for this topic, but once I got sick last week any hope of finishing it off went straight out the window! I chose to paint actress Olivia Wilde, so for now I'm submitting a planning sketch I scribbled over with some gold and silver hot foil. Sorry it's a rather half-arsed submission, but I will keep working away on my painting in my spare time, and upload it onto my blog some time in the future!

ALICE JONES
"Planning for Olivia Wilde"
Watercolour, Coloured Pencil and Hot Foil on Watercolour Paper
14 x 21cm
NFS

#5 Dislike

It was my turn to choose our most recent prompt for the Monthly Painters' Challenge, and after a lot of consideration throughout the previous month I chose 'dislike'. I know it proved to be quite challenging to other members of the group, and it did for me at first too. I don't think you can help but start to think about your own work before announcing the topic, but my initial thoughts were of portraying a celebrity or politician I don't like, and I ended up going in an entirely different direction from that as the month progressed.

I've wanted to do some work relating to my ankylosing spondylitis (a form of arthritis) for some time, and realised this was a good opportunity to begin. You can read a post about my disease here. The spine was an obvious image to include, as it's the joints between each bone which are affected by my condition, and I added two female figures stretching their arms above their heads.

I've called my painting 'Cinders' due to both the ashy grey pencil and white acrylic I used, and also as a play on the word 'inflammation'. From Google, 'Cinders' is defined as A small piece of partly burned coal or wood that has stopped giving off flames but still has combustible matter in it. Most of my pain  and inflammation from the disease has stopped now thanks to the injections I now take, but the damage is still there and is something I'll have to deal with for the rest of my life regardless of whether or not the medication continues to work.

ALICE JONES
"Cinders"
Acrylic and Pencil on Watercolour Paper
30 x 42cm
POA

#4 Safe

Apologies for these terrible photos of my painting this month. I was planning to wait until the day after deadline to take some in daylight... and then I remembered I don't finish work until after dark tomorrow night. Yep, 12 hours tomorrow! I volunteered, but now kind of regretting it of course. Oh well, at least I can sleep all weekend if need be!

This month's challenge was 'safe'. I started with photographs of my parents' house that I took on my last visit, then drew it out all nicely on canvas. After putting a couple of neat layers down, I switched it up and started slapping on the white acrylic. Besides the very rough shape and rough position of windows, it obviously doesn't look much like the house anymore. The red polka dots are from the wallpaper in my little sisters' bedroom, and the wedges on the right represent the four members of my family.

The 'safe' prompt immediately made me think of the safety of my family. I spent the first 17 years of my life in this house, it's my family's home, and it's definitely the place I feel safest.

Don't forget to click over to the Monthly Painters' Challenge Facebook page and check out everyone else's submissions!

ALICE JONES
"Memory Box"
Acrylic, Aerosol, Gouache on Canvas
30 X 50cm
NFS

#3 Happiness

Unfortunately I've really run out of time and energy this month, so have not completed a painting for the challenge. Quite disappointed in myself, and sorry to let the other participants down. Started the month off too busy with my trip to Auckland, and then had a few visitors, events and hangovers to attend to. Weak effort, I know, but I've also been quite grumpy and irritated for the past few weeks, so even when I did have down time on the weekends, painting about happiness was the last thing I felt like doing.

Sorry guys, just had to get my midwinter mini-breakdown out of the way, so I'll be sure to get back into it for the next reveal in September.

Check out everyone else's happiness entries, going up today on the Facebook page.

#2 Ritual

I've been sick all week unfortunately, so didn't really get the chance I was hoping for to finish this painting off properly. The prompt for this month was 'ritual', which was challenging. I interpreted it with this Google definition: "A series of actions or type of behavior regularly and invariably followed by someone." When I'm doing my make up properly, I have to sit in the same chair, with the same light and mirror, always before I get dressed and always apply everything in the same order. So it's sort of a self-portrait of my habit, rather than an accurate depiction of how I look... obviously. I had the composition for this painting all pre-planned out, but once I began painting it definitely transformed quite a lot- the first few layers had a lot of pink, and I gradually added more black and white until it became monochromatic with a little bit of red.

ALICE JONES
"Seven Thirty"
Acrylic on Canvas
25 x 35cm
NFS

#1 Light

I just posted my first submission to the Monthly Painters' Challenge Facebook page, so I can reveal what I've been working on. The prompt word for this past month was 'light'. I went for a combination of visual light, and light weight. Make sure you click over to the page to see everyone else's submissions (all revealed by the end of the day- we are scattered across time zones)!

ALICE JONES

"Soulever"

Acrylic, Aerosol, Gouache on Canvas

25 x 35cm

NFS

Monthly Painters' Challenge

I featured Queensland artist Tracey Potter here a couple of months ago after stumbling across her beautiful work online. Since then we have exchanged a few messages on Facebook, and recently she invited myself along with four others to participate in a Monthly Painters' Challenge! This is exactly what I need to keep myself motivated, and try new things. You can view a blog post about the challenge on Tracey's blog, and I absolutely urge you to click over to the Facebook fan page and 'Like' it with a simple click, to stay updated on our progress.

As with the other participants, my current painting is top secret, but so far I really like it! Shaky start, but have probably put a good five hours into it so far and it's coming together! Taking a break from the watercolours-on-paper thing at the moment, so watch this space!