Statement

My family of origin encouraged music and books—never art. And yet I remember a strong desire to draw from a very young age. My path to painting followed years of musical training and then poetry, always circling around the longing to paint. At last, after raising a child as a single parent, I made the time and place for painting in my life. I have never looked back.

My visual journey has been nourished by a move to a very rural place in Vermont, near an art school. From this beginning my growth as an artist has been supported by numerous mentors and teachers along the way, and soon I began exhibiting my work in local venues that included the Windham Art Gallery, the Crowell Gallery, and Hooker Dunham as well as residencies at the Vermont Studio Center.

Since these first shows, I have participated in several juried exhibitions including Thorne-Sagendorf in Keene, The Painting Center in New York City, and most recently the Blue Mountain Gallery, also in New York City. In 2015 I was accepted as a member of the Oxbow Gallery now located in Easthampton, MA which entitles me to solo and member shows on a regular basis in a beautiful gallery space. As I continue to grow as an artist, I am also deepening my practice with in-depth studies of drawing and painting, most often with artists from the New York Studio School.

I have always included in my life a space to share my love of painting and drawing in outreach programs that currently focus on weekly classes at a local senior center. It is a joy to offer anyone who is interested a chance to explore what our eyes have always known through color and form, painting and drawing.

Marilyn Allen

jollyhillma@gmail.com