Her first works to become well known were dryly painted figurative canvases, often female nudes, in light-filled interiors. An exhibition of her work entitled Fold in 1997 at Edinburgh's Fruitmarket Gallery was the first introducing fabric alongside these figures, simultaneously suggesting a debt to the 19th-century French painter Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, as well as pointing to the possibilities of abstraction.
In 2000, Watt became the youngest artist to be offered a solo exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art; her exhibition, titled Shift, comprised 12 huge paintings featuring fabric alone. In 2003, Watt was shortlisted for The Jerwood Painting Prize.
Watt exhibited during the 2004 Edinburgh Festival, installing a 12 ft painting Still, in the memorial chapel of Old St Paul's Church. Linen bound books were published to commemorate each exhibition. For Still, Watt was awarded the 2005 Art+Christianity Enquiry, ACE award for 'a Commissioned Artwork in Ecclesiastical Space'.[6]
Her subsequent project 'Dark Light' was supported by her Creative Scotland Award of 2004 from the Scottish Arts Council.[7]
In summer 2005 she took part in the Glenfiddich residency.
From January 2006 to February 2008, Watt served as the seventh and youngest Associate Artist at the National Gallery, London.[2] She worked within the gallery, and explored an enduring fascination with one particular painting in the collection, Zurbaran's St. Francis in Meditation (1635–39). The work she created in this time was displayed in a solo exhibition called 'Phantom', in the Sunley Room, running from 12 March to 22 June 2008. The same year, she was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2008 New Year Honours.[8]
Watt is currently represented by art gallery Parafin, London.
Work
Pears, 1994.oil on canvas, 152.5 by 180.5 cm. Private collection
Watt's 1986–87 Self-portrait was painted while still a student. She was ill at the time and she depicts herself with her hand across her forehead, as if checking her temperature or perhaps indicating she was feeling faint. Watt has rarely engaged in portraiture since her early career. The painting was presented to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery to celebrate its re-opening in 2011.[12]
Pears dates from the 1990s when Watt's work focused on highly realistic nudes posed on drapery. The model used here is one she painted frequently at the time. Pears was offered for sale at a Sotheby's London auction on 18 November 2015.[13]
Since then she has moved away from the nude to portraying the drapery itself.[14]
Solo exhibitions
12 March – 22 June 2008 'Phantom', National Gallery, London, UK
17 March – 7 May 2016 'Alison Watt: The Sun Never Knew How Wonderful It Was' – Parafin Gallery, London, UK
