Martin Allen Biography Page - www.dolphin-art.co.uk

My name is Martin Allen, I was born in England in 1969 and have always had a pencil or brush in my hand, ever since I can remember!

I have never had any formal art training but when leaving School I took up signwriting and design work and went on to designing one-off T-shirts.

In the late 80's I started designing Grafitti style work on T-shirts as at that time they were very popular.

After that I started landscapes and portraits of famous people, including George Michael, James Dean and Liam Gallagher, then I got a commission to paint a Dolphin in 1994 and that is when I found out that this is the subject for me.

I finally found the subject that I really enjoyed and got a positive response from it.

I have studied dolphins for the same length of time and in the year 2000 had my first wild encounter with them off the coast of Gran Canaria.

I went on an old Spainish fishing boat and we were surrounded by about 60 wild Dolphins and to top it all on the way back a giant Whale surfaced.......and boy was she big!

Since then dolphins, whales and marine wildlife are the only subject I paint now.

Technique

All my paintings are acrylic on canvas board or 400lb paper, most of the paintings I do now are on canvas board as I work better on a textured surface and prefer to frame without glass.

My dolphins are built up from a number of washes (as many as 30), then corals and rocks are straight out the tube thick to get the rough and bright texture.

Once finished, the subjects in a painting are carefully built up again with washes to give the feeling that they are really in the ocean. This is a very time consuming method but the result is worth watching paint dry in between washes!

Out and about

I have exhibited my work all over the country and have my work in local Galleries, also I have started to produce high quality Signed Prints as demand for Original Paintings is getting greater.

I have had numerous one man shows at libraries and theatres in the Essex area and won several awards for my dolphin paintings.

Lately I have enjoyed giving demonstrations to local art clubs where I give talks on dolphins and demonstrate my painting technique. Since this website has been up and running it has given me the opportunity to sell my paintings worldwide, as far away as Singapore & Malaysia. My work has been published in magazines around the UK & my painting "Healing Waters" was used as a front cover on The Animal Times magazine in Memphis Tennessee, I have received feedback from around the world regarding my artwork which is always appreciated and welcomed. Every new painting I do now will be made into professional quality prints that are colour matched by the printers and produced in Giclee' 7 colour light fast pigment inks.

This makes a cheaper option to buy my work and also as the images are digital they are available as high quality images for publishing.

At the moment this is my hobby with the hope of eventually being my living.

Hope you enjoy my paintings

Martin Allen.