Alison Gilmour is a painter from Auckland, New Zealand. She grew up in Devonport, a coastal suburb in Auckland, which has instilled a deep love of the sea inspiring her to paint it in its many forms. She is also well known for her beautiful floral and still life paintings.
Alison captures the endless beauty of her environment with delicate brushwork – creating images which have a photo-realistic quality and hues which reflect the clarity, light and richness of the South Pacific.
In this episode Alison tells the great story of meeting Tim Wilson, one of New Zealand’s most successful landscape artists and often referred to as the 'Master of Light'. She talks about how she came to be mentored by Tim two years later, how he got her into painting with oils and how she was eventually invited to exhibit in his acclaimed gallery in Queenstown, the Tim Wilson Gallery. Through this connection Alison increased her global profile, commanded bigger prices for her work and gained confidence in herself as a fine artist.
We discuss her 40 year career in graphic design and how it has informed her art practice and parts of her process. We have an interesting conversation about realism and the unique elements she brings to her realistic paintings and she shares parts of her process such as how she adds layers and why she sometimes likes to paint upside down. We talk about a pop up gallery she created with a friend and her plan to allow herself a few months to purely experiment and play with a view to possibly bringing some new techniques and ideas to her practice.
