ALISON McKENNA
VIEWING ROOM
“Landscape painting has a particular poignancy when nature is on the point of collapse, either because of greedy developers, chemical fertilisers, threat of war or climate change - all of which are now interlinked. So while we are in this transition to renewable energy sources and are aiming to reduce carbon pollution, the natural world continues to manifests its beauty and power, and in these paintings I have tried to capture that.”
Blue Bunker, Greenham Common Nature Reserve 2021
C-type fuji Gloss with colour wash on archival paper, 95 x 74 cm
White Mountain 2022
Enamel on hardboard, 110 x 170cm.
Pilgrim 2024
Large format digital print with pastel, 216 x 174.5 cm
Yulia, 2022
Enamel on hardboard, 145 x 105cm
Upwards, 2021
Enamel on hardboard, 147 x 105cm
Wild Paradise, 2025
Pastel and oil stick on photo print, 21 x 29.7 cm
Stop And Get Out I 2024
Coloured chalk, tape and photo print collage, 21 x 29.7 cm
Green Gate 2021
Enamel and acrylic on Arches paper, 57 x 77cm.
Sugar Diamond 2021
Enamel and acrylic on Arches paper, 57 x 77cm.
On Crete, 2025
Enamel and charcoal on hardboard, 100 x 120 cm
Megalith, 2021
Enamel and pencil on birch plywood, 105 x 145cm.
Horizon Line, 2025
Emulsion on newsprint in two panels, each 45 x 63 cm
Common Land 2021
“A series of photographs taken in April and Dec 2021 on visits to various sites, including Greenham common nature reserve (formally Greenham Common USAF Air Base and the site of a 19 year long peace protest by women against nuclear armaments), and the neolithic monuments of Avebury and Silbury Hill in Wiltshire at the dawn of the Winter Solstice. By decorating the black and white images with inks and colour washes, I aim to reveal the ‘energetics of place’, that in many instances have restricted access (not least to a woman in the possibly hostile environment of open countryside) or have been disrupted by roadways. Greenham Common is in an active phase of healing, but it will take a long time to lift the spirits from the weight of the past.” Alison McKenna, 2022
