ALICE MACDONALD

Alice! Thank you for speaking to me today. Let's start with you telling us how where you studied, and how you were trained?

I studied Illustration at Falmouth University, graduating in 2014. I enjoyed my time at Falmouth, and learnt a lot, (where as the fine art course had next to no teaching, we had classes in life drawing, composition, colour, printmaking…) but I knew I did not want to be an illustrator. I had been painting throughout my degree in my spare time, when I graduated, I wanted to explore painting and drawing more. I applied for the Royal Drawing School and studied there in 2016-17. I had a great time at the Drawing School. It offers more technical teaching and support than most universities in the UK. In the different classes you try out new ways of working and get so many different opinions on your work from different tutors. It was an intense whirlwind experience, but It gave me the opportunity to think about what I wanted to do in my work, and begin to develop my way of working. I had this great feeling that I was doing something I loved and working with people who also loved what I loved, which is drawing and painting. I felt a sense of belonging I hadn’t felt at university. I met so many incredible people on the course who are amazing artists and still good friends. I think it is really only now, two years since leaving I am processing all the different things I learnt and discovered and beginning to put it all together.

Was there a moment you decided to be an artist, or has your journey been gradual? What was your earliest memory involving art?

I have always loved making and painting and drawing. I don’t think there was a precise moment, I think I always thought I might be an artist, but it has been gradual journey I suppose. Some of my earliest memories with art are of painting with my Grandma. She used to get me to paint still lives and let me use her watercolours. She told me off all the time for using the watercolour straight out of the tube as if they were acrylics and not watering them down. I liked having the colours really strong and bright and did not want to add water.

Who or what is your inspiration? How does it come out in your work?

Almost everything I make starts with a drawing, from either observation or memory or imagination. These drawings could be inspired by anything from an idea in a book I am reading or a character in a film, or the experience of talking with a friend or watching strangers in a bar. It might be a mood or atmosphere that interests me, or the light, the composition, the colour or the narrative. It’s quite instinctive, I will have a moment of clarity and know I would like to paint or draw it, and so I do.

In terms of artists, I think Munch is a huge influence on me, I am interested especially in the raw emotions that are portrayed in his paintings, jealousy, melancholy, fear and love…I also love the way he paints, his colours are incredible. And I love his prints, their economic graphic style.

just incredible wasn't he? So i wonder, What is your studio like?

My studio is with ASC Studios in the old courthouse in Kennington. It is really a cubicle within a large room. Usually one wall will be covered in small paintings which I take down and put back up as I work on them, and then the other wall I will work on larger paintings often stretched straight onto the wall. I have two desks, one I have turned into a palette and the other one is supposed to be a ‘clean’ area, for drawing and watercolours, but it is often invisible covered with paper. The other two walls are covered with shelves with all my materials on them, and finished paintings. It’s quite a small space, when I get really into work it becomes pretty chaotic. I’m not very good at tidying as I go. The floor will disappear, covered in paintings, paint mixed up in different jars, painting rags, chocolate bar wrappers, cups of tea, scraps of canvas and paper, piles of books and drawings, staples… I let the mess build up until it becomes completely unbearable and impossible to work in and then finally, I tidy up and it is like turning the lights on and I feel so much better. It is almost worth the mess for the relief and calm you feel once it is back in order. If you were ever to come to visit my studio in person I promise I would tidy up for you.

aha! i can't wait till i see it. so, What does an average day look like for you alice?

Things have been different over the past few months, but now things are slowly getting back to how they were before lockdown. Usually I try to get up early and read while I eat breakfast (sometimes in bed). I work part time for a charity called Intoart, facilitating the practices of artists with learning disabilities, it is a really inspiring place to work, all the artists I work with are so fearless when making their work, and make such amazing things.
If I am not working at Intoart l cycle to the studio, aiming but usually not succeeding in arriving by 9.30. I listen to audiobooks a lot of the time while I paint, usually fiction, I have been listening to some great books recently- Three Women by Lisa Taddeo, American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins, Lady Chatterley’s Lover by DH Lawrence. I often start with watercolours making small studies from drawings in my sketchbook and move on to oil paintings in the afternoon. I’ll drink lots of cups of tea throughout the day, at some point I will search for lunch in Tescos if I haven’t remembered my packed lunch. I’ll stay painting until about 6 or 7. Some evenings I go to a gallery opening or to a pub with friends or have friends for dinner. Or sometimes I just go home and eat dinner with my boyfriend Mark and we might watch a film.

If you could be a colour, what colour would you be?

I think blue? I think blue is quite a calm colour and I think I am usually quite calm.
I also love green because it can be so many different shades from sickly yellow green to deep blue turquoise green….and it has so much symbolism to it, green eyed for jealousy, lucky green, green fingers, green at the gills…. I found out recently the devil used to be green… Maybe I’d prefer to be green,.