Monthly Painters Challenge #1 Light

Yesterday we all have posted our interpretations of our first topic for the Monthly Painter's Challenge group over on Facebook and the results are just amazing. My collage, shown above, grew out of a tiny painting I had done to try to get my head back in a good place after a very very frustrating afternoon trying to capture the idea that I had been pursuing. I had this idea to paint or draw the shadows that form on the front deck in the morning sunlight. I love watching them and spent many mornings photographing them and playing with them to find just the right one, but then I just couldn't capture it the way I wanted to and was getting increasingly disheartened.

When I get to that stage I like to try to do a little painting, or even some doodling, just to get back to the right place, and in the back of my mind I had been thinking about the light in the outback, and the way the colours are so crisp, especially at this time of year. The blue of the sky is almost a pure cobalt and the oranges and reds are so intense. A little painting came out of that, and a collage from that and before I knew it I had abandoned the shadow idea and was headlong into trying to find a great collage that captured the ideas of light and space.

Everyone had wide and varied reactions and interpretations to the topic and their works are below and many of the artists have discussed their process on their blogs, which you can go to by clicking on their tabs on the side. And finally we get to welcome two new members to the group for next month and I will add their tabs as soon as I can remember how I did it last time.

Tracey Potter

Louisa Janke

Jaz Higgins

Sarah Wiske

Alice Jones