The Race Begins Print

My earliest memory is of paint - blue powder paint drying in my baby brother’s gossamer-fine hair - and I wanted to be an artist from that moment on. This was encouraged by my mother , an artist herself, who kept me permanently supplied with a vast array of art materials and was blithely oblivious to any mess or spillages. Whilst art at school was dull and vaguely discouraged by the headmistress who made it very clear that, while art might be a very nice hobby, a more sensible choice of career would be preferable, I was immensely fortunate to be born at a time when there was still an art school in Guildford. Classes for children on Saturday mornings were run by artists , with no formal teaching qualifications who were wonderfully bohemian and tremendously inspiring. By the age of twelve I had graduated to evening life classes and from then on art school was inevitable! I arrived at Chelsea School of Art at the height of the Punk era when the Kings Road was still full of independent shops and well before health and safety had removed all the character from art schools. In those days they took very few students and we were privileged beings with free paint allowances and parties with the tutors every Friday where the gin flowed and behaviour was bad! I spent 3 wonderful years in the “Life Room” where 10 of us had 3 models from 9-5 every day and then moved to the Slade for more of the same. Shortly after I left the Slade Life Rooms in art schools were mainly disbanded and “Conceptualism” ruled. In 1984 I left London and moved back to Guildford with my husband and have lived and worked here ever since painting a wide range of people and exhibiting both locally and nationally including, as a prize winner, in the BP Portrait Award and with the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. I also have  work in many private and public collections including those of the Queen in Windsor Castle, the Royal Colleges of Surgeons in London and Edinburgh, the Royal Institute, the Royal College of Anaesthetists, the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, the BVA, the Royal Society of Medicine, the Royal College of Nursing, the Universities of Oxford and Surrey and many regiments and public schools. Recent commissions include portraits of HRH The Duchess of Cornwall, Lord Soulsby and the Archbishop of York and examples of my portraits can be seen on my website :http://janeallisonportraits.co.