Alison Watt is widely regarded as one of the leading British painters working today, with work held in many important national and international collections including the National Portrait Gallery, London; the Arts Council Collection, London; the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh; U.S. Embassies Collection; and the Uffizi Gallery, Florence. Watt subsequently became well known for her paintings of figures, often female nudes, before beginning in the late 1990s to focus on the fabric which had previously acted as a prop or backdrop for her figures.

Alison Watt may still be best remembered for her monumental portrait of the Queen Mother, a commission she received on winning the John Player Portrait Award in 1987, while still a student at Glasgow School of Art. In the four decades since then, her practice has evolved and matured, and the artist now produces astounding tromp l’oeil still lifes, zooming in on single details, such as an open book, a cup and saucer, or the fold of a tablecloth.