Artist with upcoming Glasgow exhibition credits dying father for pursuing career
Alison McWhirter’s father James offered her some words of encouragement ‘in the last week of his life’ which inspired her to refocus her career.
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Your support makes all the difference.An artist who is holding a solo exhibition in Glasgow on Saturday credits her father and brother, who both died within the last 10 years, for inspiring her to pursue a career in painting.
Alison McWhirter, 48, shifted her career from teaching and publishing to painting in 2013, after her father, James, who died a week later with colon cancer, encouraged her to chase her passions.
Ms McWhirter, who was born in Dumfries and is now living in Glasgow, also credits her brother, Alan James, who died from a sudden brain haemorrhage in 2021 at the age of 48, for being her “absolute mentor”.
After holding exhibitions in London and having her artwork showcased in New York, Hong Kong and Singapore, Ms McWhirter will be opening her second exhibition, titled Summer Palette, at the Annan Gallery in Glasgow on Saturday.
Speaking about her father, Ms McWhirter told the PA news agency: “In the last week of his life, he said, ‘Look, life is so short, it’s incredibly short, it’s so fleeting. Forget everything you’re doing in your career and focus on becoming a painter, do it for me’.
“And my brother was a huge influence because he was my absolute mentor.
“If I ever needed some advice, he was always there, and he was the most positive and colourful person.
“He said to me, ‘Alison, what would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail’, and I wrote that in my sketchbook and looked at it every day.”
Of her family’s motivation, she added: “When I’m having days that I’m doubting myself, they do help me power through and I don’t want to let them down.”
Ms McWhirter said she “didn’t have the confidence” to pursue a career as an artist before the motivation from her family because “it’s really tough to make it in the art world”.
“I think it’s particularly difficult right now because a lot of funding has been cut,” she said.
“The general impression is that a career in art is really difficult.”
Ms McWhirter said that she tries to regularly meet artists in the early stages of their careers to discuss her experience, to offer “as much advice as they want to take”.
“I really want to see as many people succeed in the art world as possible because I think if there was more art in the world, there would be so much more joy and much less stress.”
Ms McWhirter said that the “main thread” throughout her work is “the use of colour to convey emotion”, and she regards herself as an abstract painter who is “interested in conveying a pure feeling”.
She said that she often finds flowers, and in particular sunflowers, coming through in her work, saying: “My dad loved sunflowers and I always think that sunflowers are quite masculine in some way.
“For some reason, when I’m painting sunflowers, I’m always smiling to myself thinking, ‘it’s a bit of my dad coming through in my work’.”
She added: “I feel that flowers are very monumental, and everyone connects with flowers and I love painting them for that reason.
“My paintings are really, really emotional, and a lot of people who come to the exhibitions, it’s quite a strange thing but people can get really emotional.
“The flowers have always got some sort of deep connection, some sort of memory that they have.”
For Summer Palette Ms McWhirter has been studying the “beautiful” palettes of famous artists, from Frida Kahlo to Wassily Kandinsky, to inspire her work.
“That was a sort of starting point, they are impressions of those palettes of artists that I really like that use really interesting colour combinations,” she said.
“It’s kind of moving, because you can see the relationship between the paintings that they created.”
Ms McWhirter said that while this is her second exhibition at the Annan Gallery, she has had “very successful” exhibitions in London, and her work has been showcased in New York, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Of her upcoming solo exhibition, she said: “I’m a bit anxious about the exhibition opening but I always get like this and it’s always fine.
“It’s good nerves, I’m trying to replace the word anxiety with excitement.”
Alison McWhirter’s Summer Palette solo exhibition runs from September 2 to 24 at the Annan Gallery in Glasgow.