Richard Allen Artist Statement
My work has always explored the possibility of creating mysterious images with the power to surprise.
There is a song by Philip Glass called The Photographer: A Gentlemans Honor, which has a line in the lyrics, Never seen, never seen this picture before, which is a mantra for me. I was first introduced to the Art of Painting by my family; I had a Great Uncle who was a Draughtsman and painted for pleasure. He was fascinated by the Impressionists and from conversations with him and my Father, I developed a passion for Art History. I found Surrealism and Pop Art for myself and Dali with his Paranoid-Critical Method has always been an exemplar and inspiration.
As a child I remember gazing at the patterns on carpets and seeing figures and landscapes that came from my imagination and it is this facility which I have developed to create my images. I believe most people have this facility; who has not swerved there car for a leaf that might be a weasel! But it is not just as simple as seeing something as something else; seeing a cloud as a camel; apparitions repeat themselves, so it is necessary to be critical and choose those images which have resonance with experience and hold meaning for a particular time and place, this being the standard for authentic inspiration. From the first appearance of the image, I make many drawings to resolve the composition, exploring the uncanny of the everyday, the resemblance of experience and seeking to get as close to the slide that has dropped into my head, but more real than the real, hence surreal.
I also find it helpful to develop a dialogue between representation and abstraction and recently I have used my interested in Comics and Sequential Art to break up the image with a grid of panels. The paintings are now carried out in oils to produce single Images that can be looked at over and over again to explore their overall mystery and possible meaning.
