ALISTAIR BUTT RSMA

Art For Sale

Click on thumbnails for further details

Alistair first introduction to art was at the age of six when he attended the local art group with his father and watched a watercolour demonstration of a salmon leaping a small waterfall, a painting he remembers to this day.

Alistair attended his first art college studying drawing and painting for four years. This was followed by a further three years studying Technical & Scientific Illustration. Alistair now paints full time working in both watercolour and oil.

Alistair has had a series of successful one-man and joint exhibitions at galleries across the country. For several years Alistair's paintings have been included in the Royal Society of Marine Artists (RSMA) annual exhibition at the Mall Galleries, in London. In 2007 he was elected an Associate member of the Royal society of Marine Artists (ARSMA). In 2008, Alistair won The Ranelagh Press Award, the first time it was awarded at the RSMA, with one of his watercolour paintings. This was followed in 2009 with Alistair being elected as a full member of the RSMA.

He has also shown work at the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colour's (RI) exhibitions and more recently at the Royal Institute of Oil Painters (ROI) exhibitions, both at the Mall Galleries. He has been a finalist in the RI Young Artist Award; an exhibitor in the UK section entitled "Master Painters of the World", of the International Artist Magazine; and he was selected as one of the top "50 Masters of Watercolour" in Europe, for the French magazine Pratique des Arts and an article in the launch issue of L' Art de l'Aquarelle, a magazine spotlighting some of the best watercolourists of the world.

Artist’s Statement
To me, light in all its forms and its effect upon the subject, provides the starting point for many of my paintings. It provides the sparkle, impact and/or mood to a landscape, seascape, village etc. For example: shimmering highlights on a stream or water in a harbour, sunlight coming through spring or autumn trees, long shadows from a winter sun on snow covered ground, a grey misty morning on the moors.

Like many artists, past and present, I find the seaside, boats and harbours a great source for paintings. From sedate creeks, small sandy coves, pebbled beaches to pounding waves on jagged rocks, through the endless variety of fishing boats or yachts that add a human element and also scale. All this without forgetting the wide selection of small but wonderful fishing villages or harbours scattered around the British coastline, each having a unique feeling and identity.

Venturing inland there’s a wide variety of picturesque farms, small country villages and towns. Many of the farms and villages are ideally located within wonderful ‘British’ landscapes that again provide an endless source of material for my paintings.