My exhibition this year will be displayed in my brand new studio at the end of the garden. It's taken a painstaking 18 months to build but is going to make a huge difference to the way I work. The idea was to incorporate the expansive views across Oxfordshire fields and to let the light in, directly onto the walls upon which I will be painting and drawing. It will also allow me to work outside with all the materials and equipment I need on hand.
I will have paintings up on the walls as well as browsers with small works on paper and in mounts. I may even manage to put a slide show together!
This studio has been designed and built by my husband during his non working hours and holidays so you can come and appreciate his craftsmanship too!
We will have non alcoholic drinks and nibbles.
Using landscape and seascape as a starting point, I explore movement and energy alongside notions of time and metamorphosis within the natural and physical world.
Colour and qualities of light have a leading role to play in my paintings and are the expression of the transient moments I notice from observing the land and sea and sky.
I often work outside, either at the coast or in the landscape, on sheets of loose paper, using pastels so as to capture the movement and colour simultaneously.
I see this as information gathering and a reminder of the experience when I return to my studio work. Creating drama and awe are important to me and I play with contrasts and the physicality of gestural mark making to achieve this.
During the studio painting process, I begin to recognise metaphorical thoughts that the images I am creating give rise to. These are often reflected in the titles I give them.
My work is an expression of the joy I am filled with as I experience the wonder of the natural world, taking C.S Lewis’s description of joy as a “sharp, wonderful stab of longing”.
Alison graduated with a degree in Fine Art from Exeter College of Art and Design in 1991 then a post graduate teaching qualification from Exeter University.
She lives in Oxfordshire with wide open countryside and big skies as inspiration and visits the coast as often as possible having spent her childhood in a seaside town in Somerset. For as long as she can remember she has had a fascination and awe for the incredible power and beauty of the natural world.
She is a member of Artcan, The Oxford Art Society and is an associate artist for Unison Colour pastels. Alison exhibits her work mainly in Oxford and London.