Robert Allen

I am an artist who primarily paints from the land and seascapes around Jersey. I paint my own experience of the textures, colours and forms of the rising and receding tides.

About Robert Allen

I have lived in Jersey since I was a young child. My initial training in art came from Falmouth College of Art in the early 2000s. Here I got to see up close the work of the St Ives artists like Peter Lanyon and Wilhelmina Barnes-Graham; two artists who have had big influences on me. I trained mainly as a sculptor sourcing wood from fallen trees in forests or large pieces of driftwood on the beaches in Cornwall. It was part of my second year I spent in Milan that pushed me more into drawing and painting and using my own experiences in my art.

After university and after working and travelling abroad I trained as an art teacher which I have done for 10 years. It was a project I set up for a year group studying the seascape work of Nick Romeril and working alongside him that set me on my current body of work. I loved Nick’s preliminary sketches of the landscape and how full of energy they were. I also saw up close a Monet at a local law firm around the same time and saw how much fun he had with his mark making and colour choices whilst out painting en plein air. These experiences led me to start working in the landscape which is my studio.

In my artwork I want the viewer to feel the experience of sitting on the beach in the late evening sun or at the edge of the sea as it recedes or in the driving rain in the depths of winter. I often use elements of the land in my work using seawater to paint with or adding sand for heaviness and texture. I want the viewer to enjoy the sensation of being in the landscape through my artwork.