Allison Willingham

Allison Willingham believes every instant is as unique as a snowflake. Through her paintings you feel a cry to stop and smell the roses in an ever expectant world—the melancholy of moments lost and the anticipation of ones yet to be found. You can almost see the water running, feel the gentle breeze, and witness the blooming and wilting of flowers and trees in her landscapes and still lifes. She is drawn to the vastness of the forest, desert and sea and the confined spaces created by suburban life. Her images evoke contradictory emotions—the claustrophobic security of the backyard to the romantic nostalgia of her flower studies to the vastness and organized chaos of nature.

Vibrant colors thickly applied in energetically handled oil paint distinguish Allison’s expressionistic oil on canvas paintings. Patterns and textures ripple and weave throughout the images, drawing the observer to the artist’s interpretation of the world and its constantly changing reality of shadows, light and content. Her jarring use of perspective, willful distortion of forms and interpretative treatment of subject matter inform us that her statement is more than just a pastoral comment. It’s about the blurring of lines, both in the painting and our lives, that leave us wondering where one thing ends and another begins.

From large six foot canvases to small intimate pieces, Allison is poised and confident in her statement—a statement made with her signature vivid color palate and thick painterly brush strokes (always using a brush, never a palate knife).

After graduating with honors from the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, Allison left her New York and Boston childhood for the expansive Western vistas that inspire her work. She lives in Utah with her husband and three children.