Education
1993-95 MA Painting - Royal College of Art
1990-93 BA (1st Class Hons) Fine Art - University of East London
1989-90 Art Foundation - Waltham Forest College
About
Heather McAlpine was born in Stirling, Scotland and moved to London to study art, achieving a BA (First Class Hons) from East London University 1993 and an MA from the Royal College of Art in 1995. In 1999 she emigrated to Vancouver, Canada where her paintings were inspired by the wild coastline of the Pacific North West and the Rocky Mountains, with their aquamarine glacial lakes, tree lines, horizons and lake and sea reflections which informed her work.
Having recently moved back to the UK, she chose to live in the artistic community of St Ives, drawn to the rugged beauty of the Cornish coastline which continues to inspire her paintings.
Member of NSA (Newlyn Society of Artists) and member of STISA (St Ives Society of Artists)
associate member of the Penwith Gallery
Process
Colour and process are the two fundamental aspects of her work, colour is intuitive and celebratory, starting with a saturated coloured ground, this creates an atmosphere and through the use of layers and a constant reworking of the painted surface, a personal vocabulary of marks develop, using brushes, print rollers, squeegees, any tool that enables me to create and reveal atmospheric layers, a lyrical and fluid atmosphere develops evoking an emotional response in the viewer and memories of landscape.
Having gathered sketches, colours, notes, I then like to work on many canvases at the same time as I feel I am physically and emotionally immersed in the painting process, I prefer to use acrylic paint and a variety of different types of fluid mediums. Painterly lines and marks serve as metaphors of energy, movement and growth, exploring the relationship between colour and the vitality of the natural world.