Alison McWhirter BA MA was born in Scotland in 1975. McWhirter attended Bath Academy where she trained as a painter gaining a BA in Fine Art in 1998. She continued her studies to gain a Postgraduate MA in Visual Culture 2000. Bath Academy of Art has produced such luminaries as the colourist Howard Hodgkin.
McWhirter’s paintings are instinctive responses to her subject which are often imagined, using bold loose marks, so creating a sense of spontaneity which is prevalent in all her work. McWhirter’s abstract works are sensorial responses which hover in the minds eye. They are about pure feeling and a desire to connect with the beauty that is life. A common thread in her work is a willingness to honour the struggles in making a painting and to embrace the process as a timeless form of expression.
McWhirter has shown internationally in 2014 and 2015 at New York Art Fair and Hong Kong Art Fair selling out in NYC. Her first solo London show in 2016 at The Russell Gallery was a major success. Subsequently, she has had a sell out London show in London in 2020.
Since then McWhirter has exhibited with The Royal Scottish Academy in 2021 and has another solo show in London in 2022.
’I’m striving to get at the beauty in the things that surround us, to that which elevates us beyond reason’ McWhirter 2021.
