Allison Rietta
- May 15
- 4 min read
Allison Rietta is a Toronto-based abstract artist who works with watercolor, acrylic and hand-cut paper collage. She worked in branding and design for 25 years. In March 2020, as everything slowed down, she pulled out her paints one night and started again. She paints geometry, informed by her practice of Himalayan singing bowls and meditation. She studied at the Turps Painting School in London and has exhibited in Toronto, New York, London and Basel. Known For Her Beauty is a tribute to her late grandmother, who came to Canada from Serbia alone with four children and lived to 98.
Q: You spent 25 years in branding and design before switching to painting full time. What's the story behind that?
A: My transition into painting wasn't sudden—it had been building for years. Design has always been central to my life, but over time I felt something was missing. After decades of working within briefs and strategies, I found myself craving a more intuitive, open-ended form of expression—something made purely for the sake of making.
A shift began in 2016 when I studied yoga, which helped me let go of long-held beliefs and listen more closely to my inner voice. It opened the door to a different kind of creativity, one not tied to outcomes.
Then, in March 2020, as the pandemic slowed everything down, I felt a strong urge to create. One night, I pulled out my paints and began again. What started as a quiet return became a reawakening of a part of myself that had been dormant for nearly 25 years.
Q: Singing bowls and meditation are part of your practice. How does sound find its way into the paintings?
A: Sound and meditation are deeply embedded in my process. Practices like yoga, pranayama, and sound healing help me access both conscious and unconscious states of creativity. Sometimes ideas arrive clearly—in dreams or during meditation—and other times they emerge more subtly, shaped by the vibrations I carry after working with Himalayan singing bowls or chanting.
I've had people notice that certain compositions resemble yoga postures, which I see as an intuitive reflection of these embodied practices. Moon cycles also influence my work, particularly the full moon, when I allow myself to create freely and without constraint.
Material and colour are equally important. I'm drawn to watercolour for its fluidity and transparency—it mirrors the ideas of flow and release that underpin my practice. Like sound, water moves, transforms, and carries energy, often leading the work in unexpected and intuitive directions.
Q: Known For Her Beauty is a tribute to your late grandmother. How did that piece come about?
A: Known For Her Beauty is a tribute to my grandmother, Baba. She was born in Serbia, married a Croatian, and came to Canada with four children on her own. She didn't speak the language, but she was determined to build a life here—taking on any work she could, including labouring on a tobacco farm.
In my twenties and thirties, I spent every Sunday with her, listening to her stories over Turkish coffee and her poppy seed cake dusted with icing sugar. She was the most elegant and beautiful woman I've known—inside and out. Always in heels, even in winter, with her standing Saturday hair appointments.
This painting reflects how I remember her: strong yet soft, composed yet deeply human. Its geometry and restraint hold a quiet strength—much like she did. She lived to 98, and she remains with me every day.
Q: You studied at Turps from 2022. What did that year do for you?
A: The Turps course was a correspondence-based program, where I worked closely with a mentor and also received feedback from a guest artist. They engaged not just with the work itself, but with my process and thinking behind it.
What stood out most was the nature of the dialogue—it never felt like a critique in the traditional sense, but more like a gentle guidance. It allowed ideas to unfold in a way that felt self-discovered rather than imposed.
The exposure to other artists, movements, and references was equally valuable. It opened up new lines of inquiry that deeply resonated with my practice. As someone who is naturally curious, it gave me a framework to research, explore, and investigate further on my own.
Q: Some of your pieces are very precise and structured, others more atmospheric and fluid. Do those come from different places, or is it the same impulse?
A: My practice moves between minimal, open compositions and more immersive, colour-saturated fields. While they may appear different, they come from the same underlying impulse—an ongoing curiosity about how simple geometric forms can hold complex emotional and energetic states, such as stillness, transformation, and resonance. Much of the work emerges from a place that isn't entirely conscious. I don't always know its source, but I trust it completely. It often feels as though the work leads me, rather than the other way around.
At times, that impulse calls for boldness—dense, layered colour and presence. At others, it asks for softness—where water dilutes pigment and transparency becomes central. I follow that rhythm and allow each piece to become what it needs to be.
Q: Where are you heading with the work right now?
A: I'm interested in translating my paintings into three-dimensional forms—creating sculptural works that embody the mystic geometry present in my practice. I'm still exploring which materials feel most aligned—ceramics, glass, wood—but that sense of not fully knowing is part of the excitement. I'm drawn to following where that curiosity leads.
I'm also eager to move into larger-scale projects, whether through installations or by integrating my work into architectural elements. Working with light and glass especially intrigues me, as both feel deeply connected to the spiritual dimension of my work.
While my practice hasn't traditionally been overtly political, I find myself increasingly drawn to themes of feminine strength in a contemporary context. This feels, in part, like a response to the ongoing challenges and erosion of women's rights. Through my work, I aim to express resilience, presence, and quiet power.
