Born profoundly deaf as a result of rubella, she has overcome many challenges in her life.

At the age of just 18, Allyson won her first major art prize at the Annual Victor Harbor Rotary Art Exhibition, one of South Australia's Major Art Events.

Allyson has sold more than 1000 paintings into corporate and private collections throughout Australia and overseas.  Her work consists of strong composition, simply organised with good colour and tonal relationships, & she is an artist who produces work of considerable substance and intensity.  Captivated by the moods, the light, mystery & magic of the Australian bush, Yorke Peninsula's Allyson Parsons is one of the most sought-after artists in the country.

Her ability brought her to the attention of the internationally renowned Adelaide artist and art critic, Ainslie Roberts, who was astounded by the young artist's work.

"She is one of the rare gifted few who were born with the instinct for doing everything right with brush and paint. What she has achieved in a few short years is probably unique in the history of Australian art. There were no tentative beginnings, no slow struggle for recognition of the mature talents, techniques and perceptions of acknowledged artist three times her age. She has a remarkable affinity with the inner life of the Australian Bushland she has known and loved since childhood. And her haunting paintings extract the magic of it with a tantalising sense of the mystery of secret places." Ainslie Roberts, 1990.

Ainslie Roberts became Allyson's valued mentor as he offered her advice and encouragement. He saw what he believed was 'a genuine touch of genius' in an 18 year-old and advised her to use her natural abilities and begin painting, untutored.

The late Andrew Wyeth, the internationally acclaimed American realist painter, is another of Ally’s mentor’s, inspiring her and the way she approached her art.  During a world art study tour in 1993 - after consultation - Allyson was invited to study Andrew Wyeth’s original paintings & technique.

Allyson has consistently studied Wyeths paintings since and has become completely drawn to his works.

"I love to know the fascinating story or meaning behind everything he paints. The subject matter is important to him... and I love the mystery in his paintings.  He is an abstractionist but paints it through realism.  The emotional impact of the story, the feeling of the atmosphere, the temperature and the light is incredible.  I can imagine the passages of light in his paintings.  You become part of the picture, you are there!   This is something that I want to be able to achieve in my work... for the viewer to step into the painting and feel part of it.   His technique with Drybrush, watercolour and egg tempera help to achieve his emotion toward the subject.  His closeness with the earth itself reflects in his palette... his colours are very earthy.  The Drybrush weaving process of building the layers of paint is fascinating to me and I use this technique in my own painting now, especially in my landscapes"

Allyson, has had no formal training & has been guided by her mother Marie Parsons, herself an artist and former Art teacher.

In the years that followed, her paintings of the Australian Landscape near her Lower Yorke Peninsula home have earned much recognition. Allyson Parsons, or better known as 'the farmer’s daughter with a touch of genius' shook the art buffs with the success of her first solo painting exhibition. People queued in the street in the freezing cold the night before. The exhibition was a sell-out within 25 minutes - with a limit of one painting per person.

Now painting mostly oil on canvas as well as watercolour, her work reflects the rural Australian landscape where she grew up on the Yorke Peninsula and Mid North area of South Australia.  Now also outback Australia, Simpson Desert, and pastoral country emerges through her art.

Today she shares her passion with her sons, Henry and Jack.

What you see and sense in Allyson's paintings is the essence of what she sees and senses in the country that she loves to paint.