Born in Canada in 1958, Alison Dunlop began her art studies there before continuing her education in France and undertaking postgraduate studies at Edinburgh College of Art in 1982. With both Scottish and Welsh ancestry, Scotland was a natural place in which to make her home and develop as an artist.
 
After many years of close involvement with Scotland’s national arts organisations, Alison followed a long-held ambition to establish a studio by the sea. In 2006, she began restoring a derelict croft house and barn in the North West Highlands, creating a studio overlooking a landscape of sea, islands and mountains that has become central to her work. A new studio building now also provides an intimate exhibition space in which her work can be seen in the landscape from which much of it emerges.
 
Alison was elected a member of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour (RSW) in 1989 and has twice served as its Vice-President. During the 1990s she was a Council member and then subsequently President of Visual Arts Scotland, serving for three years and later being made one of its Honorary Life Members.
 
She is a founding Director of The Exhibiting Societies of Scottish Artists (ESSA) and a founding member of the Edinburgh College of Art Alumni Association.   From 2001 to 2004, she was Honorary Arts Convenor of the Scottish Arts Club in Edinburgh.
 
Alison has twice received an Elizabeth T. Greenshields Foundation Scholarship and has been shortlisted on several occasions for the Noble Grossart Painting Prize. Her other awards include the Alexander Graham Munro Award, the John Gray Prize and the Walter Scott Award.
 
Working principally in oils and watercolour, Alison’s work is held in public and private collections throughout the UK and Canada. Her work has been exhibited widely, including at Panter & Hall, Mayfair; Thompson’s Gallery; The Piccadilly Gallery; The Thackeray Gallery; The Bruton Gallery, Bath; The Scottish Gallery; Open Eye Gallery; Roger Billcliffe Gallery; Fidra Fine Art; Gairloch Museum; and galleries throughout Scotland.

Her work has also been selected for the principal Open Exhibitions of the Royal Scottish Academy, Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour, Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts and Visual Arts Scotland.

In 2012, Alison published Spirit of Beyond: The Shiant Isles, which features, among contributing essays and poems (by Annie Worsley and Brian Hill) and stories, an extensive collection of graphite drawings, watercolours, oils and photographs.   An enigmatic presence on the horizon, in the Minch, and visible from her studio, the Islands have remained an enduring presence in her work. 

alisondunlop.com

@alireddeer