about
Allison Watson’s paintings are represented in over 500 public, private and corporate collections nationally. She began her professional career as a studio artist in her twenties and is well known for her vivid depictions of the wild places of her native Florida. She has had over thirty solo exhibitions.
She has taught painting for more than 30 years and is on the teaching staff of the Cummer Museum of Art and other locations. She holds painting workshops internationally.
Allison is a fifth generation Floridian and an avid kayaker. As a lifelong environmentalist, the beauty and mystery of Florida’s wild places are the inspiration behind her landscape paintings. Allison grew up on the St Johns River and the tributaries of the river and the woods, springs and lakes of north Florida. She began painting and drawing before she was a teenager and never had another career ambition other than painting. A formal art education was not an option, so she is completely self-taught. “I think that because I had to teach myself to paint, which was a long and difficult process, I am a better teacher. It is a great joy to share information that I had to struggle to learn. I love to see people discover the magic of making art.”
“I have a spiritual connection to the Earth and I see nature as magical. Artist paint what they love and what they know in most cases. If one knows about the environment, then they know how beautiful, wondrous and fragile it is and what a disaster it is to lose it. We are all part of nature.”