Alison Moy

Biography

I have a compulsion to create. The process of transforming mud, paint, graphite, ink, paper and canvas into art has always struck me as something magical. Painting and drawing fills me with a sense of accomplishment and integrity that I hope to use as a vehicle to translate my inner vision to outer reality. I am captured by the beauty in small prosaic things that are sometimes easy to miss, like a puddle full of autumn leaves or the curve of someone's cheek. I am intrigued by open spaces and big skies, all kinds of borders, layers, half hidden things and reflections. I'm never without a sketchbook to hand so I am constantly drawing. Sometimes the drawings are left in the sketchbook and other times they develop into more in-depth ideas and detailed images. I have lived in England, Singapore, Iran and most recently America. I'm now back in London. I've worked as a hospital porter, a tree planter, a ward maid in a maternity hospital, a gravedigger, an archaeological technician, a customs and excise officer and a charity CEO. I am very fortunate to have travelled widely. I spent many years living in the Shetland Islands where I learned how to do traditional Shetland knitting and worked for several years designing and producing knitwear. Throughout my adult life I have been drawing and painting. I will never stop learning and experimenting with materials. I have studied at The Prince's Drawing School and Morley College in London, and the Art League of Houston and Glassell School of Art in Texas. I am now doing a one year oil painting diploma at the Norfolk School of Painting, being taught by the artist Martin Kinnear.