Alison Watt

Alison Watt is one of the finest exponents of figurative art working in Scotland today. Based in Glasgow, she has been painting large oils of female figures for the last fifteen years. Watt studied at Glasgow School of Art and whilst still a student, won the John Player Portrait Award with a memorable self-portrait with a teacup on her head. Shortly afterwards she was commissioned to paint a portrait of the Queen Mother. Watt has since become known for her paintings of female figures and intense self-portraits, seen in the light-filled rooms of her studio flat in Glasgow's west end.

With her preference for a cool palette and enigmatic subjects Watt's subtle, yet intensely erotic, paintings recall those of Jean-Auguste-Dominic Ingres (1780 - 1867). The clarity and linearity of her most recent work, including Rivière, is reminiscent of the paintings of the Scottish artist James Cowie (1886-1956), who worked in both Glasgow and Aberdeen. Indeed Watt can be seen as the natural successor to Cowie, occupying as she does a most individual space in the contemporary Scottish School.