#18 - Maybe Monet

"Alice! Yeah, I thought it would be a good idea to get it done as soon as possible." She gave the Gryffindor a bright smile, glad to see a friendly face. She watched as Alice looked through all the supplies - was she as overwhelmed with all the choice too?

At the question, MJ gave a shrug, "I have a few ideas. A field of flowers with some animals, or a water scape with fishes. The Professor said the painting would be enchanted so I'm guessing it's going to move like the paintings in the hallways. I want to do something that will make the children smile, something that maybe they don't get to see a lot of in hospital."

She put her pencil down for a moment, pondering a third option, "How about you?"

Maybe Alice already had an idea and didn't need to plan hers out!

"I think that would make for a nice painting... Maybe you could do children playing together at a park or something?" She tilted her head to the side, trying to help Alice with her idea as much as possible. "It won't be something that you could paint for everyone but I think it would still be nice to look at."

MJ herself had settled on what she wanted to paint as she set aside her sketch. She was going to go with a pond scene, underwater with some fish and a frog swimming around. She thought it would look really nice once it was enchanted as well, with the water moving and the different plants and animals coming to life. At least, she assumed that's how Professor Rivera's spell would work on it.

She mixed together the paints and started on her canvas. She laid down a light wash for the background and then blocked in where the frog and fish would go, with some background shadows for plants to fill out the space. Then she added some in the foreground too. Painting was always an activity she enjoyed, a talent her Granny had said she got from her father.

Apparently he was an artist too.

The colours came together and soon her scene came to life before her. There were colourful fish in a school together and a frog diving happily. Of course, she was just a child and had a child's skill when it came to painting but she enjoyed herself. She thought it looked rather well. She set her paintbrush down after a long moment of quiet painting and studied what she had done.

"What do you think?" She invited Alice to look at her painting and give her opinion but MJ didn't dare move it just yet. The paint would need a few minutes to dry.

She was happy that Alice seemed to like her painting, which helped MJ feel like she had made a good choice with what she ended up creating. Looking at Alice's own work she gasped.

"You're so good at painting people! I always struggle with them." She could vividly picture the children running around and playing together and she smiled.

"I really like the colours you used for the sunset too, I think Professor Rivera is going to be really impressed with you!" She grinned at her friend. They both had finished their paintings!

MJ let her own dry for a moment, tidying up the supplies she had used. Everything she had used must have been magical in some way - she didn't need to throw out any dirty water (it was always clean!) and the paints weren't muddied or mixed up either. There was no need for her to wipe them down or something. MJ just had to put everything back when she found it.

Maybe she would ask Professor Rivera about where to get magical art supplies...?

Once she was done, she picked up her now dry painting and satchel, "Shall we go show these to our Professor?"

She was excited to see Professor Rivera's reaction too!

[OOC: Exit for MJ!]