Border 2 Painting

Richard Allen's work uses gestural brush strokes and thickly applied oil paint; it is based on intense observation exploiting the tension between the directly recorded and the photographically reproduced. Whilst his work is determinedly representational there is often a conceptual element at play, employing framing and mediating devices, pictures within pictures. His work- landscape, still life and portraiture- is sensitive yet viscerally painterly, and strongly atmospheric. Richard Allen has worked to great acclaim as an illustrator in the UK and US, working with clients such as the New Yorker, the Folio Society and Random House. He has garnered numerous international awards including the V&A Illustrator of the Year 2017; In recent years Richard has returned to painting, winning the Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year 2016 and taking part in several solo and group exhibitions. Richard Allen's work is held in public and private collections internationally.