2023

Between Heaven and Earth

Solo Exhibition January 2023

Scottish Gallery

I was thrilled and honoured to be exhibiting these watercolours in the Scottish Gallery, especially during the month of January, with its gentle light - traditionally the month for watercolour exhibitions in the capitol. The watercolours seemed to sing in their frames and in the sublime space of their Garden Gallery. The exhibition was very well received and was given 4**** by art critic Duncan MacMillan in the Scotsman Magazine.

I’m incredibly grateful to all the friends and fellow painters who made the trek to Edinburgh on an early January morning, to the preview of “Between Heaven and Earth” to support me, from both ends of the UK - from as far south as Brighton/Hove and as far north as Mallaig in the Highlands - not to mention Aberdeen, Glasgow and Perth!

“This time of year, especially, when the Arctic breathes out in our direction, there is a never-ending dance of light and vapour out there over the water here, as snow squalls pulse and sprint down over the Minch and the Inner Sound (which is the body of water between the mainland and Skye)..

The energy and the light in this place is unlike any I’ve known before and living here is a daily immersion in a breathtaking (sometimes overpowering) drama played out by the elements. There seems to be much more in the way of drama in the west; no doubt down to its geography and the presence of the Gulf Stream.

 Nature here seems to be in a state of almost constant flux. Maybe it’s the presence of islands too, just off-shore, which encourage the interplay of light, land and water as sunshine yields to sudden mists and cloudbursts, with slivers of light dancing through the air onto the shimmery water below, before dissolving into scintillae of light-infused vapour. 

My watercolours are an attempt to find an equivalent in paint for the experience of looking out beyond my studio windows to the seas here. As the series has grown, since I first came to live in the NW Highlands in 2006, the images have inevitably become more and more abstract, distilled, re-defined. The process of pressing forward with this new imagery, not knowing what the next piece will bring or where it will take me, is very exciting – it has taken on an energy of its own.

Each piece seems to grow out of the previous ones, to teach the eye and the hand something new.  To let the hand, the pigment, the paper and the water grapple – and then act in unison, giving form to an (inner) experience of the drama unfolding beyond my window.”

from the film “Between Heaven and Earth” with thanks to the Scottish Gallery

…………

Please do check out the pages “Spirit of Beyond: The Shiant Isles” for details of the 2021 exhibition and Book and scroll down for details.

Winner of the Water Scott Award 2018

On the 25th November, I was hugely honoured and over the moon to receive the Walter Scott Award for my latest watercolour "between heaven and earth" at the 138th Open Annual Exhibition of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour at the Royal Scottish Academy Galleries in Edinburgh. The work was also purchased for the company's collection. 

Exhibiting in East Lothian 2019

In April 2019, I will be exhibiting in a small group show entitled “Abstracted”, at Fidra Fine Art in Gullane, along with the artists John Brown RSW, Dominique Cameron, Simon Laurie RSW RGI and Christopher Wood RSW.

I’m very much looking forward to showing in this new gallery with some of my fellow RSWs.

Dates for your diary:

The show is set to open on Friday 5th April and run until Sunday 5th May.

Exhibition 2017

Duncan MacMillan wrote in The Scotsman

of Alison's work in The Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour  Annual 2017 Open Exhibition, at the Royal Scottish Academy, The Mound, Edinburgh:   

"Alison Dunlop also uses her medium beautifully in Wave and Wave-Study. In both, an inverted arc of transparent blue hovers above a blue horizon. This is essential watercolour. She could not create such a luminous image in any other medium."

The entire review can be read in the Scotsman [here.]

11 - 14th May 2017 - The Affordable Art Fair, Hampstead, London with Gallery Heinzel

(images of work exhibited, below):

The Studio

During 2008, work was begun restoring a derelict barn in Ross-shire on the north-west coast of Scotland - to provide a new studio space.

Below is a photo-story of the various phases of the project over the 8 months it took to transform the former byre.

(Depending on your broadband speed, it could take a while to load the images)

While the studio is a private working space and not open to the public, a visit to view Alison's work can be arranged by appointment. Please see the Contact page for details.