Alison Orchard | Continuum

Alison Orchard’s paintings arise from a lifelong conversation with the landscape, shaped by her experience of the Cornish coast and the woodlands surrounding her Hampshire studio. She first visited the St. Ives School of Painting as a teenager, experiencing its lively artistic community and discovering the thrill of painting outdoors on the wild Cornish coast. Alison studied sculpture and painting before completing her Illustration degree at Harrow College, University of Westminster. She initially built a successful career as a commercial illustrator and designer before pivoting fully into fine art with her first solo exhibition, Arvor, in 2009. She has since exhibited widely with prominent galleries, and her work has a growing following. She currently runs her own studio and gallery in Hampshire, offering collectors a direct and immersive experience of her working practice.

Alison is fascinated by the sky and the sea, the vastness of the coastal horizon and closer to home, the light filtering through trees and the changing colours of the heathland. Her paintings are confident, expressive, and rich in colour, inviting the viewer to pause, to experience the physicality of the paint, and the quiet power of the landscape.

Alison works at scale, using bold gestural brushstrokes alongside softly layered, atmospheric surfaces. Dusty pastel marks echo the freshness of her initial sketchbook observations. Her practice typically includes the use of oils, acrylics, or encaustic wax, sometimes incorporating collage or stitching. This collection unapologetically embraces the purity of paint on canvas, where colour and marks are used with confidence and deliberation. A strong foundation in drawing and observation is central to Alison’s values and process. Years of plein air painting and sketching around West Cornwall have provided the skills and visual knowledge that has enabled her to shift away from representation, embracing a more abstract expression in more recent paintings. This new collection is shaped by years of returning to landscapes that continue to resonate. Rooted in observation yet informed by reflection and painted from a place of deep curiosity and wonder.

“One of my primary drivers is to create paintings that make people pause, to consider the colours and physicality of the paint, to feel an emotional response. In the same way that looking out to the horizon connects so deeply, I want my paintings to stop people in their tracks, for them to be held in the moment and left with a deep sense of connection.”