Lockdown Walks, Spring, acrylic on gesso ground, framed behind anti-reflective glass 119 x 32 cm
When life slowed in lockdown Alison spent her afternoons walking on Devon lanes. Where driving would have revealed a momentary slice of landscape through gaps in high hedges, walking invited contemplation, the still, hot air fizzing with insects and evoking the continent at siesta time or a childhood when everybody didn’t own a car.
Stained gesso grounds and an incremental layering of inks hold an economy of mark and a tenderness for the claustrophobia of lockdown. From intimate views of bare fields to the domestic ritual of tea, a body of work speaks to absence, separation and silence. An art psychotherapist, Alison is interested in the states of being that art can harness.
From the blond cornfields and gentle chalk downs of the Chilterns through life in small cities and under vast fenland skies, Alison was drawn to the landscape of Devon with its rugged cliffs, sheltering hedges and the warm, agricultural red earth of the South Hams which has been her home since the early 2000s. Born in Luton, comprehensive and polytechnic-educated in the shadow of Protect and Survive, Alison retains strong personal ethics and a sense of social justice.