Workshop with geoff allen

GEOFF ALLEN - Biography

     "My art journey began unconventionally. I graduated with a bachelors in Economics, with a passion at the time for black and white street photography culminating in 1986 with a solo exhibition at the Reno Art Museum called “Suburban Views”. 

     My most pivotal moment as an artist came during a postgraduate summer watercolor class. The class was plein air painting in the Sierras during July when it began snowing on us, I was thrilled and hooked.

     Soon after, I graduated with an MFA from Claremont Graduate University in 1990, and thrusted myself into the urban grind and contemporary art scene of Los Angeles. Initially working as a scenic painter in Hollywood and residing in a downtown studio, life felt exhilarating but there wasn’t much time for art.  Luckily I began to teach drawing and ran several college galleries. 

     My art at the time was poured pastel sculptural wall reliefs. Instead of brushes, I used poured plaster, fiberglass, and syringes filled with acrylic. This work resulted in a solo exhibition at Post Gallery, on Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles in 2001. As different as all these experiences may seem, I have found the connecting threads to plein air. 

     Currently I am living in a beautiful coastal town north of San Diego. I left the complexity of Los Angeles and began an illustration business with my wife, Jennifer Brinley, who was my high school girlfriend who I met in art class. 

     Looking back on my career in art, it was always about making art to fit into preexisting categories or labels: be it contemporary art, modern art, abstraction, conceptual, performance, installation, illustration, folk art, or commercial. Whereas my focus now … feels more about an appreciation of life, nature and transforming that excitement onto paper."

Image: Heirlooms by Geoff Allen

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION:

Join award-winning watercolorist Geoff Allen for a three-day still life workshop focused on building skills to paint fruit and flowers from life. Each day begins with foundational lessons in watercolor handling, including the relationship between brush mixture and paper moisture, and the expressive use of lost and found edges. We will start with simple exercises exploring value and color mixing that will build knowledge and be repeated in class paintings.

This class is designed for students with some watercolor experience through intermediate level. Through a combination of demonstrations and hands-on exercises, students will explore contour drawing, and brush handling while observing natural forms and light firsthand. 

Geoff emphasizes an impressionistic approach to watercolor, encouraging spontaneity and expression through techniques like wet-on-wet, wet-on-dry, dry brushing, lifting, splattering—and, most importantly, knowing how to use water itself as a creative tool.

Geoff’s goal is to help you grow as a painter—and to see the beauty of light, form, and nature in a whole new way.

NOTE!  YOU MUST COMPLETE THE REGISTRATION FORM TO RESERVE YOUR WORKSHOP SEAT. FORM + PAYMENT = FINISHED REGISTRATION.

(If paying by check, registration is not complete until check is received.)
CONFIRMATION WILL BE SENT FOR COMPLETED REGISTRATION.

Image: Keeping in Touch by Geoff Allen