Aleph Contemporary for AccessArt

After lockdown, to get over a painting block I painted a lot of shoes from a book about shoes from 1790 to 1970. The photos are mainly in black and white and so I imagined the colours. I enjoyed painting one simple object and using the paintings as a way of playing with colour and paint. As I went on I got more interested in how much personality a shoe can have and how different they are from each other, and imagining what sort of person might have each shoe.

Fascinated by the complexities of human behaviour and emotion, my work has its foundations in a diaristic practice of drawing people from observation and memory. Subjects are chosen instinctively, and range from close family and friends, strangers in bars, beaches or on the street, to images I have seen in films. The paintings are an empathetic and personal reaction to what I see, often searching for an intimacy with both the subject and the viewer. Theatrical and cinematic qualities are often present. I’m interested in the idea that, while we represent ourselves in daily life, we act and play out roles whether self-imposed or created by society. I am particularly drawn to drawing women. Aware that the male gaze has deeply influenced how I and society expect women to look and behave, I paint myself and other women in examination of the female experience, female friendship, my own relationship to womanhood and my received concept of femininity. Drawings and direct observations are later transformed by painterly experimentation on the canvas, as compositional elements are added and removed along with the exploration of colour, different materials and techniques.

Alice studied at Falmouth University, 2014, and The Royal Drawing School, 2017. She has undertaken residencies including The Drawing Marathon at Rhode Island School of Design, USA, a teaching residency at The Institute of Fine Arts, India, and a painting residency at Dumfries House, Scotland. Selected exhibitions include; The Beep Painting Prize (2018), The Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy (2019), The Just, Aleph Contemporary, (2020), Silent Disco at Wells Projects, a two person show with Mark Connolly (2020), The Ruth Borchard Self Portrait Prize Long List (2021), and Open Studios at V.O Curations (2021) Art on a Postcard (2021) Dentons Art Prize Shortlist (2021)

@Alice__mac   www.alicemacdonald.co.uk