EXPLORING the traditions of still life has become a sort of raison d'etre for artist Alison Watts.

She's always been interested in the objects of study of the Old Masters and she says she's never quite understood why that within the whole hierarchy of subject matter the still life has been relegated to the lowest level.

The creative results of Alison's passion to paint still life are stunningly evident within the new paintings featured in first exhibition at Kendal's Abbot Hall Art Gallery.

Running until February, A Shadow On The Blind includes major works representing a significant new development in her practice as well as a selection of key earlier works. Many works are being exhibited for the first time.

Alison is widely regarded as one of the UK’s leading painters. Her exquisitely painted canvasses negotiate a position close to abstraction yet are firmly rooted in the artist’s studies of drapery, light, human form and her much loved Old Master paintings and sculpture. Through absence, her work suggests a powerful human presence.

Alison was born in Greenock in 1965 and studied at Glasgow School of Art. Her work first came to public attention in 1987 when she won the National Portrait Gallery’s coveted annual award, and in the late 1980s and early 1990s she became known for her paintings of figures, often female nudes.

In the late 1990s her focus shifted away from the figure and she began to explore the possibility of painting drapery as a surrogate for the human body. Alison's residency as associate artist at the National Gallery culminated in the landmark solo exhibition Phantom in 2008, and she was awarded an OBE in the same year.

Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is held in many prestigious public and private collections, including the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, the National Portrait Gallery, London, the Uffizi in Florence and the new American Embassy in London.

Helen Watson, director of programming for Lakeland Arts - which owns Abbot Hall - said they were delighted to welcome Alison and introduce her to a north west audience: "Her large canvases are exquisitely painted and executed."

The exhibition is the finale of Lakeland Arts’ year-long celebration of women in British art and culture. LA's venues have been marking a century since the Representation of the People Act 1918, which allowed some women to vote for the first time in Britain.

For further information telephone 01539-722464.