ALISON STREET – ARTIST STATEMENT

Painting is my way of expressing my passion for colour and my love of wildlife. Africa is a vibrant, colourful and exciting continent. It’s full of breathtaking wildlife and scenery. Conserving a small part on canvas is a privilege.

I endeavor to capture Africa with all its rhythmically changing colours by using liquid acrylic, it creates its own path, swirling, mingling, the colours dancing together breathing life into the canvas. I never interfere with the colours as they entwine, I let the paint do the work with some amazingly unexpected results, my happy accidents. This has become my favorite background medium.

The calm side of my art has to be the wildlife, more exacting, time consuming and deliberate but with a certain lightness. I feel the wildlife deserve to painted just as they are, they are a wonderful part of our heritage.
Wildlife became my main subject after observing many poaching atrocities, I felt it was my duty to portray and conserve these magnificent gifts.

My favourite tool has to be water, sprayed, splashed and dripped onto colour making it whoosh, swirl, creating rivers of fantasy.
My favourite colours are all the hot colours, oranges, yellows, reds, siennas, I think these colours are an accurate depiction of the country I live in.
I know a painting is finished when I hesitate to add another brushstroke to the canvas.
When people look at my artwork I want them to see the beauty of our wildlife and make the decision that conservation will become a part of their lives too.