About the Artist
Leslie Allen
Leslie Allen is an American abstract and figurative painter based in Sausalito, California, with deep roots in New Mexico and Texas. Born in Alamogordo, she spent her childhood along the Rio Grande in El Paso. As a late teen she moved to San Diego, where she worked as a federal courtroom clerk while studying graphic arts, and held her first solo exhibition of watercolours at the Edward J. Schwartz Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse. San Francisco's art history drew her north. Working as a paralegal at Lucasfilm, surrounded by its growing art collection, became a turning point in her creative life. Over years of study and mentoring her work evolved from tight watercolours to vibrant landscapes, gestural figures and finally to large, expressive and often lyrical abstracts in oil. She credits the painter Chester Arnold, her teacher and friend, with inspiring the switch to oil. She studied anatomy, design, figure painting and cartooning at the Academy of Art, aquatint etching at Crown Point Press, and also at the College of Marin and with notable Bay Area artists. For close to 40 years Leslie has painted in her studio in Sausalito's Marinship district on the waterfront, a place whose depth and geometry often find their way into her paintings as an homage to the workers who built it. Her work spans abstract oils on cradled canvas, collages and monoprints from her own intaglio press, from 6 inches up to 90 inches. Paintings like Coffee Break, More Joy Please, Floating Homes and Marinship Groove show her bold colour and confident mark-making. Music is the other half of her life. Leslie studies cello and plays in the College of Marin Symphony Orchestra, and she regards painting and music as deeply entwined; titles like Blues Duet and Largo e Lento say it. Chester Arnold put it this way: her ignition was brilliant, and the years since have continued to amaze and delight lovers of high-octane abstraction. She is represented by Seager Gray Gallery in Mill Valley, has served on the Marin Arts Council board, and mentors artists of all ages through lessons and workshops in her studio.
“Leslie Allen is a Sausalito painter of high-octane abstraction. Rooted in years of figure drawing, her bold oils, collages and monoprints carry the rhythm of the cello she plays and the geometry of her waterfront studio.”
The Process
Inside the Studio
The Painting Process
Leslie's paintings start with drawing. Years of advanced anatomy and figure study gave her a confident hand, and that confidence is what drives her mark-making today: bold, fast and sure, even when the painting is fully abstract. She calls it objective abstraction, where every mark still comes from looking hard at something real. She works mostly in oil, often on cradled canvas, building colour in vibrant layers and letting gesture carry the energy. Her studio itself feeds the work. The depth and geometry of the old Marinship building on the Sausalito waterfront, where she has painted for close to 40 years, often show up in her compositions as a quiet homage to the shipyard workers who built it. Next to the paintings she runs her own intaglio press. She uses it mostly for monoprints that are close relatives of her paintings, and as part of her collage-making, cutting and layering printed and painted papers into new pieces like Road Scraps and Cyanoplay. Music runs through everything. Leslie studies cello and plays in the College of Marin Symphony Orchestra, and she sees painting and music as deeply entwined: tempo, rhythm, a duet of two colours, a slow movement in blue. Titles like Blues Duet, Largo e Lento and Steppin' Out Again come straight from that world. She also shares the process. In her studio she mentors artists of all ages and offers lessons and workshops, keeping the door open to anyone curious about how a painting comes together.
