Artistry Of Lancashire – Art By S Art

Alison Weatherburn is an artist who draws on her long-held passions and has taken the brave step to becoming a professional artist. She launched her own business eighteen months ago, S Art, encouraged by friends and family to brush the dust from her old paintbrushes. She describes it as “opening a dam” – the creativity she’s held inside since her childhood drawings of horses has been released and she now creates figurative and landscape paintings using a range of media.

Alison has held a lifetime of love for all things equine; as a child all she wanted to do was to earn enough money to buy a pony. She now is a very proud owner of four ponies, who provide her with inspiration and indeed feature in her landscape work. Recently she painted some “nosey cows” which has spurred the idea of a project capturing the comical poses livestock often adopt, but her commissioned pieces are mostly of peoples’ beloved dogs.

Alison avidly captures images that strike a chord: walls, weeds, shells, pebbles or stones – anything that could be incorporated into a painting. She is about to start her largest piece to date, with a beautiful frame waiting to envelope the landscape once complete, featuring, naturally, a horse or two!

In her figurative pieces Alison is telling a story – individuals in a specific moment of their own narrative, or in a pose that captures their character artfully. She lets her imagination direct her paintbrush, her work is an expression of herself – however, with art being quite so subjective, she is often intrigued to hear what others perceive from her pieces. Alison likes to suggest what is taking place on the canvas, and let viewers concoct their own stories in response.

Alison enjoys receiving feedback from those who purchase her art, and especially enjoys seeing her work adorning the walls of peoples’ homes. She admits to be her own worst critic, and positive feedback always provides a sense of relief! Sometimes, however, she will fall in love with a particular image and find it hard to hand over to the purchasers. The work she enjoys best is when she is given free rein to depict a client’s pet in a commissioned piece in a setting of her own choice.

When Alison began painting again eighteen months ago, she began by using an old favourite – watercolours – but her love of bright greens and strong colours was difficult to reproduce to the desired effect with this medium. Reluctant to return to oil painting, she opted instead for acrylic paint which has a similar thickness, but dries much quicker. She found through experimentation a way to manipulate the paint using flow improver and matt medium, giving exactly the strength and depth of colour she had sought.

By lucky accident she happened across the Lake District based manufacturer Derwent’s Lightfast Pencils – oil-based colours which can be layered to achieve a similar effect to oil paint. Guaranteed not to fade for up to 100 years, they are a medium designed to last.

George Stubbs (1724-1806) a self trained artist best known for his paintings of horses is, unsurprisingly, Alison’s favourite artist. Nowadays however Alison has discovered a whole new world of art and artists through the internet, but it is very much the landscape of Lancashire on her doorstep that provides a daily dose of inspiration. From her home on the edge of suburbia, the woods, fields and moors she describes as a landscape artist’s paradise are just a stone’s throw away.

Whilst the lockdown prevented Alison from getting outdoors as much as desired, and unable to exercise her ponies far from home, it did provide an opportunity to build up her portfolio, which is still work in progress. She has sought inspiration from closer to home, and she has also used the time to take stock and fully embrace her creative side, after hiding it for so many years in the background. Lockdown inevitably put paid to her plans to attend local craft fairs, shows and festivals, but she remains determined that one day the nine year old girl who drew horses from Ladybird books will see her paintings displayed in a public gallery.

For now, however, you can view Alison’s work and make contact by her website http://www.artbysart.com/ or on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ArtbySArt/
You can also find her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/art_by_s_art/ or @alison_wea