Alison Watt - Ways of Seeing
Alison Watt has worked as a biologist on seabird colonies, an ecotour guide, has published a novel, a work of non-fiction and a book of poetry. She teaches painting online and in her studio on Protection Island, near Nanaimo, British Columbia. Alison is interested in where science (especially biology) and art interface and her paintings are informed by landscape and botanical forms. As a self-taught artist who has been painting for over thirty years, Allison relates to both the dream of making the paintings we see in our minds, and the frustrations of mastering the tools, techniques, and mindset to achieving them. During our conversation, Alison talks about creative destruction, informed intuition, and how freeing it is to paint without brushes. Alison is not interested in moral instruction but in illuminating new ways of seeing.