Autumn 2024
This place is about horizons. THE horizon. That elusive line. It is always out there, in the distance, that baseline.. When you can see it on a clear day, you sense certainty and definition, but the more you look at it and the harder you try to grasp it, it shifts and changes. Before long, the light and the sky here in the North-West will change. It’s in a state of almost constant flux.
The visual tension of that horizon line, which draws the eye outward, suggests stability and the pull toward the infinite. Stillness seems charged with ambiguity, hinting at both presence and absence. All of life is there, as if the painting is just holding its breath, suspended between states of being.
The horizon is rarely obscured up here, by man - his presence, his structures. And it is always low, because the sky here is vast, just as it seemed as a child, growing up in Canada. It keeps me grounded.
"Inner Sound, Skye Bound" (centre, below - SOLD)
oil on canvas 143 x 203 cm
Featured in the exhibition "Minch Song" at Gairloch Museum until 18th December.
New Work
new work 2024
a new collection of watercolours has been inspired by the drama of recent storms over the sea during 2024
and a small selection of these is below:
(hover your cursor over the expanded image and its description will appear)
It was a dramatic and stormy winter in the North West, but short, sharp interludes of blue sky and relative calm provided momentary, welcome respite. Back-to-back storms brought ferocious gales and meant that most of the area was ice-and-snowbound in turn. The blog post, featuring more words and images can be seen here:
Minch Song watercolour 56cm x 76cm
"Minch Song" (56cm x 76cm, above) - one of 3 watercolours featured in the RSW's 143rd Annual Open Exhibition which previewed in the Royal Scottish Academy on Friday, 12th January, in Edinburgh.
The Hanging and Arranging Team, capably led by Christopher Wood RSW had only 3 days to hang an enormous number of works by both Members and Non-Members into a much tighter space than usual and the show is looking phenomenal. Do wander in, if you are in Edinburgh!
It opens to the public Saturday 13th January and runs through to Tuesday 6th February 2024.
(Minch Skyfall and Cloud Notes, below)
Minch Skyfall watercolour 56cm x 76cm
Cloud Notes watercolour 56cm x 76cm
“My solitary Shiant pebble still rocks on... and there is more work in this series to come as I explore a few new ideas in depth, inspired by those magnificent rocks out there in the Minch. I’m still finding great inspiration in this one, fist-sized Shiant pebble, which has become like a talisman to me.
My eyes are going in closer and closer and, almost paradoxically, seeing a whole world in this form - a planet in fact… I do love the playful resonance between the micro and the macro.
I build the image with free-flowing marks on the paper, with a rhythm of random, frenetic scrawls… drawing on the pulsating energy of waves, of the elements, the rhythms and processes by which the rocks are formed and transformed.
They are quite large (56 x 76 cm) and I’ve shown one below, with the pebble itself, for scale. I’m hoping to do anywhere from 12-15 of these, with no plans yet to exhibit them and no idea where this exploration will lead.”
Summer exhibition at Fidra Fine Art
An archive oil from my ‘anima’ series exhibited in the summer exhibition at Fidra - “Knot Flowin’”, below. SOLD
Current Exhibitions Winter 2023:
“Land & Sea”
A small group exhibition at Fidra Fine Art, in Gullane, featuring several drawings inspired by the Shiant Isles.
28 January to 12 March 2023
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
56cm x 76cm
Graphite Pencil on Paper
Garbh Eilean from Mol Mor, Shiant Isles
39cm x 109cm
Graphite Pencil on Paper
Bid na Faing, Eilean Mhuire, Shiant Isles
56cm x 76cm
Graphite Pencil on Paper
Rock face, Clach Uaine, Eilean Mhuire
56cm x 76cm
Graphite Pencil on Paper
Exhibition “Between Heaven and Earth” January 2023
“Between Heaven and Earth” watercolour on TH Saunders Waterford hot press 100 x 152 cm (Private Collection)
“BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH”
The solo exhibition “Between Heaven and Earth”, featuring 20 of Alison’s recent watercolours, opened on Saturday 7th January and ran until the 28th, at the Scottish Gallery on Dundas St. in Edinburgh. Please read on for the four-star review in the Scotsman Magazine, by art critic Duncan Macmillan (below).
A few images of the exhibition below and a link to the Scottish Gallery’s virtual viewing rooms, on their website, further below.
Work is still available through the Scottish Gallery.
Scottish Gallery Viewing Rooms
the virtual exhibition, still online:
For anyone unable to travel to Edinburgh to see the exhibition, the Scottish Gallery has made it easy, with the launch of the show's virtual viewing rooms. Please do click on the button below to be taken to the exhibition:
It is possible to tour the entire gallery - immerse yourself in the Fine and Applied Art in their light-filled spaces and wander from room to room, at the whim of your fingertips.
A sample screenshot view is shown above, with the work of textile artist Kate Blee in the background.
Wednesday 11th January at 5 pm, Alison was in conversation with Scottish Gallery Director Tommy Zyw about what inspires the work, her process and how she came to live in Wester Ross. It was an online event.
*THIS ONLINE EVENT HAS NOW ENDED.*
If you’re looking for a little respite and a deep breath during this festive season, below is a short, beautifully made film, by The Scottish Gallery, about what inspires the work - this place, the light, the elements, the sea…. :
BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH
07 January 2023 - 28 January 2023
The exhibition opened on Saturday 7th January and ran until the 28th.
The Scottish Gallery
Opening Times
Tuesday-Friday: 11am – 6pm
Saturday: 11am – 2pm
Sunday-Monday: closed
16 Dundas Street
Edinburgh EH3 6HZ
a return trip to the Shiant Isles during September 2022:
