exhibitions
Blue Territory
5th April - 7th May 2023
We are delighted to present Alison McWhirter in a major new solo exhibition. This inaugural solo show for Alison at Doubtfire displays both a powerful sense of colour and technique, along with a tangible emotional depth. "The paintings in this wonderful exhibition, which is the first of Alison McWhirter’s solo shows to be held in Edinburgh, were all produced in the course of a year after she moved into her new studio in the East end of Glasgow on the propitious date of 1 January 2022. As the title of the exhibition ‘Blue Territory’ implies, its leitmotif is the colour blue, which is represented throughout by ultramarine, cobalt, indigo, Prussian blue, Egyptian blue, woad, electric blue, and cerulean among others." Colin J. Bailey
Exhibition Images
(click on thumbnails to view - please check with gallery on availability of work)
Alison McWhirter
Over the past two decades, Alison McWhirter has consolidated her position as arguably the most gifted artist among the younger generation of New Scottish Colourists, producing works of irresistible allure. She enjoys significant and well-deserved renown at home and abroad for her highly original still life paintings; her range of diverse landscape motifs; her bold, compelling abstracts; and, most recently, her ground-breaking series of reclining nudes. Paintings in all these categories are exuberant in their colouring, technically innovative, and compositionally daring. In them there is a palpable tension between depiction and abstraction; between what is observed and what is imagined; what is seen and what is felt.
Alison’s paintings are underpinned by her unquestionable sincerity and characterised by such freshness and enthusiasm that they appear to have been painted spontaneously. In fact, although there are occasional acts of last-minute spontaneity, they are fundamentally the product of long periods of reflection and introspection. Alison is remarkable for her willingness to acknowledge the struggles entailed in making a painting; in her own words “to embrace the mysterious nature of the creative process”. Her style continues to evolve as a result of her constant, restless, unquenchable urge for experimentation, and an inexorable quest for ever greater abstraction. To this end, she has recently resorted increasingly frequently to the use of her own fingers and the palette knife, wielded at times with breath-taking bravura. The dominant colours are often transferred directly from the tube to the canvas, then smeared or swirled at will across the surface, culminating in a sensuous, thick, buttery impasto.
Alison was born in Dumfries ... Read More