Articles

Alison Bolton ARTISTIC LICENCE

By SIMON LAWRENCE.

“Honestly - I cannot remember a time when I didn’t paint - I have always painted” Alison told me when I visited her Forest Studio. “It is the Forest that provides the inspiration for the majority of my work - the winter brown heathlands, the April sun dappling the forest floor with moving shadows, the long history of the ancient woods, its varied wildlife. There are never two days the same in the forest, its mood can change from hour to hour.”

Alisons intimate knowledge and delight in the changing light of the seasons provides the foundation for her work. I found nothing in her paintings that is not beautiful and uplifting - “I want people to enjoy my work, all of the marks I make come from my own personal experiences; experiences of the landscape”; she told me. “Although I keep a book of drawings, and sometimes colour notes - I paint what I remember, what’s here inside me - not what I may have seen”, she continued. Discovering acrylics transformed Alison’s style. “I used to work in oils but the mix of thick and thin glazes took weeks because of the long drying times. Now I can work much more quickly”.

She studied at the Salisbury School of Art and at Hornsey College of Art with Maurice de Sausmarez, and has exhibited at the Royal West of England Academy, the Royal Institute and other exhibitions in London and the South. exhibition at Hampshire
Alison’s paintings have leapt from the walls of galleries into the lives and homes as far away as Australia, The United States as well as Europe. Her work communicates the beauty of the forest without apparent rule - and I am sure if there were rules Alison would break them. Van Gogh saw the sun and tried to wrestle it out of the sky. Alison has borrowed a little of that courage to paint the Forest Landscape in her own inimitable style.