Collection: McLay, Allison

Allison McLay (she/her) is a landscape painter who works primarily in watercolour. 

When not painting, Allison works as an elementary school teacher, and she enjoys running and making puns. She can be recognized by her signature cackle. Allison lives in Kjipuktuk (Halifax) with her son and her cat.

My art captures the beauty of the province of Nova Scotia. Living on the rocky edge of North America, there’s a wildness to nature here, a stubbornness: to not only survive but thrive. I explore my relationship to Halifax, where I have lived my whole life, and Digby County, where my mother’s family lived for over 250 years. These paintings act as an exploration of the land and  my relationship to my forbearers.

I paint in watercolour because I love the soft mingling of colours I can achieve in the medium: this allows for a freshness and a softness to the light that captures the experience of sunset. The medium is also ever challenging in that one can never quite control the water and "happy accidents" are frequent.

 Artist Statement

Light plays a huge role in my work. I want the viewer to be struck by the beauty of sunlight on the landscape. The warm light of sunset features frequently in my work. There’s a sense of peace and calm at sundown in the woods: everything comes to be still, the work of the day is done, and there are a fleeting few minutes before the sun dips below the horizon that offer a special moment of connection and communion with nature. Through my art I want the viewer to experience the beauty all around us in nature. It is a fabulous world we live in, and we’re so lucky to be alive and to be able to experience it.