Alison considers the narrative beyond ordinary objects.
Alison takes her inspiration from the natural world and is interested in exploring the significance of objects; flowers, photographs and places on the themes of belonging, identity and memory. In her still life paintings, she tries to achieve simplicity and subtlety of line and colour, often simplifying shapes and playing with perspective. She is interested in creating a narrative through her work, prompting the onlooker perhaps to consider the story that lies behind the objects on a table or the view through an open window.
Her inspirations for landscapes and seascapes are often from the places she has called home - Ireland and Scotland. She is often drawn to groups of trees on a skyline, marks made by ploughing, or farm buildings perched on a hillside. Then there are also those places she has encountered on her travels, which she early waits to paint once she returns to her studio.
She approaches her paintings in a structured way but carries them forward intuitively. Using a reduced palette, shapes, colours and patterns are simplified to create a level of abstraction. She often uses skewers, knives, printmaking techniques and collage to create shifting dynamics within each piece.