GREG ALLEN
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Born in Melbourne in 1958. Armed with a passion to draw and benefited by creative parents - his father a noted architect - Greg Allen began to develop a precocious understanding of design and materials, and the stuff of art, in his teenage years, which when honed with tertiary studies in Illustration and Graphic Design, culminated in establishing himself as a professional artist at the significant age of twenty - three.
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Wholly self taught, yet owing inspiration to Harold Herbert (Aust: 1891-1945), John Singer Sargent (1856 – 1925) and Arthur Streeton (Aust 1867-1943) he developed a strong, loose, yet richly - toned realist style tailored to suit not only his love of the robust Australian sunlight, but his increasing desire to paint a broadening range of subject matter, principally in watercolour, but often in oil and even in pastel.
Says the artist on this philosophy: “I have always believed in responding creatively to the maximum range of visual stimuli, for perhaps to do otherwise would be to inhibit an artist’s potential to emotively touch people in visually diverse ways and I think a society will ultimately judge you with this in mind.” .
Greg Allen has developed a considerable reputation as one of Australia’s most accomplished watercolourists, both through his consistent award -winning originality and the quality of his works. His work invariably appears strong, colourful and diverse - aspects indicative of his fundamental enjoyment of light and colour, yet always containing consistent elements of sound design, draftsmanship and a crisp, direct technique. Greg Allen…his knowing brush strokes, incisive direct technique, cogent design skills and solid draftsmanship reveal his fundamental preoccupation with the playful interactions of light in landscapes and nude studies.
