Leslie Allen is an American painter based in Sausalito, California, with deep roots in New Mexico and Texas. In 1974, Allen moved to California, where she has painted for nearly 40 years in Sausalito's Industrial Center Building (ICB) in the historic Marinship district on the waterfront. The ICB is a cultural hub in the San Francisco Bay Area, and Allen is a founding member of the ICB Artists Association of 100+ artists. Allen derives inspiration from the studio's depth and geometry, and often inserts references into her paintings as an homage to those workers who created what has long been her sanctuary.
Initially exhibiting watercolors, Allen was eventually encouraged by a teacher to try oil painting—a turning point that led her to years of plein air landscape painting groups, studio-based figure drawing groups that she hosted, and modeled for. Leslie Allen studied graphic arts at UC San Diego and fine arts at Belvedere School. Later on, she studied at the College of Marin before and after attending the Academy of Art, as well as studying privately with several notable Bay Area artists. Allen also studied aquatint etching at Crown Point Press, but uses her intaglio press mostly for making monotypes that relate to her paintings.
She regards designer and watercolorist Mark Adams as a significant influence on her practice, Richard Diebenkorn, Joan Mitchell, Karen Frey, Thomas Marsh, and Tron Bykle as her greatest inspirations in abstract painting, but above all, credits oil painter Chester Arnold as her greatest mentor.
Allen’s painting style is dominantly improvisational, driven by intuition and deeply tethered to music. A late-blooming cellist, she resumed her studies after a 50-year break and now performs with the College of Marin Symphony Orchestra. She regards her love of music as integral to her life as an artist, and she hopes to explore expressive abstraction on cello in some form that rhymes with her progression as a painter.
"Leslie’s ignition was brilliant, and the subsequent years of work have continued to amaze and delight lovers of ‘high-octane’ abstraction."
— Chester Arnold, painter
"Allen’s works are sophisticated paintings with a keen sense of color, gesture, and division of space. Clearly influenced by California painters Richard Diebenkorn and Frank Lobdell, Allen’s lyrical sense and gestural marks also relate her work to the New York abstractionists, especially Joan Mitchell."
— Donna Seager, gallerist
Photo: Ken Cook
Leslie Allen is represented by Kennedy Contemporary, Newport Beach, CA; Lori Austin Gallery, Sonoma and Healdsburg, CA; and Donna Seager Fine Art in San Rafael, CA (formerly Seager Gray Gallery, Mill Valley, CA)
Archival prints of many of her works are published by Art Brokers Inc., San Rafael, CA.
