Anne Allen
Anne Allen is a painter and gardener.
“Garden spaces have always been my muse. Whether I am walking the pathways in an historic public garden or overlooking the rock garden from my studio window, the feelings are the same. Gardens are the here and now for me. Gardens teach me to be present. Painting allows me to record the interludes.”
Anne loves to draw. Pastel is a dry medium consisting of pure pigment and a binder. Formed into various shapes and degrees of hardness, pastel allows her to draw, paint or combine both in her paintings. “With a single stoke of a pastel stick the small crystals of pigment catch light. Layers of color often glow. It’s musical.”
Landscape is Anne’s first love as a pastel painter. Abiquiu, New Mexico, is where she first discovered the dry pigment of pastel. The landscapes match my emotion for landscape painting. “Red cliffs at Ghost Ranch, rendered in pastel, are all about fire.”
“Today, I find joy in painting trees. Like sentinels, the canopies of trees are sheltering. The tree is full of symbolism for many people. A grove of trees in Celtic circles is sacred, like a sanctuary. I like to think that I can communicate that sense of place when I paint a tree.”
“The artwork, Seasons of Life was inspired during an afternoon in Japanese Portland Gardens in Portland, Oregon. Rarely without my camera, I recorded the fall landscape and completed the pastel painting in my studio in Western North Carolina.
“I love using staccato strokes to paint the canopy of a tree. I finished the painting, Walk Slowly, using yellow, turquoise, and sage-color pastels, then twisting and turning the pastel in different directions, as if I am using a piece of charcoal.”
When asked, Anne will share that it’s the art of Vincent van Gogh, Raoul Dufy, and Joaquin Sorolla that influences the way she thinks about art. “Buoyant color on the canvasses of Dutch Post-Impressionist Van Gogh and Spanish master, Joaquin Sorolla, inspire me. The mark-making of French painter Dufy is like music.”
Anne relocated from Southwest Florida in 2011 and focuses her energies full-time on the fine arts of Western North Carolina. Anne serves on the board of directors of the Appalachian Pastel Society, a regional arts organization with 170 members. “I study painting, show my pastel paintings in Asheville, organize an annual non-juried pastel exhibition, and teach in my studio.” Memberships also include the International Association of Pastel Societies and Southeastern Pastel Society. Paintings have been juried in regional, national, and international group exhibitions. Artworks are in private collections in North Carolina, Florida, and California.
“Artists reinvent their work when they journey forward. Remembering to pause and to ask how and why I paint enables me to reach beyond my grasp.”
My Treasured Things, 20 x 22 inches, Pastel on Sanded Paper
Japanese Water Garden, 12 x 16 inches, pastel and charcoal, unframed
Walk Slowly, 20 x 16 inches, pastel
Morning Song, 7 x 5, inches, pastel, unframed
French Countryside, 16 x 12 inches, pastel
Seasons of Life, 14 x 11 inches, pastel
Renewal, 12 x 9 inches, pastel, unframed
Purely Pastel, 7 x 5 inches, pastel
When Flowers Dance, 7 x 5 inches, pastel