Tom Allen is a painter who frequently draws inspiration from the natural world. Rather than depicting exotic flora as inanimate objects in still-life portraits, he tries to capture a sense of vitality, drawing inspiration from the flourishing period of plants. This approach alters the relationship between the painter and the subject, as a still life demands concentrated attention on the object's reality, while portraiture involves the rendering of the sitter's likeness as well as their characterisation. In his painting, some of the floral subjects are encountered during Allen's walks around his neighborhood in Los Angeles, while others are found during his travels. He emulates their likeness through photographs taken on his phone, but in the studio, his skill, palette, and knowledge of art history give birth to a personality that belongs neither to the painter nor to his subject. This creates a distinct ontology of painting that resides in a realm of vision that is inaccessible to both photography and the human eye. Allen's paintings are captivating, and the way he captures the darkened blush of a rose or the depth of a bunch of pistils on a bloom reveals a world beyond our own.  

The approach

Los Angeles

Springfield

London

Mall Gallery

Mall Galleries

Hoxton Gallery

Somerset House

Royal College of Art

X Museum

Tom Allen

The Voice

Untitled (Yellow and Bronze)

Untitled

Pink and Black

Diamonds

The Promise

Kilauea

Two Reds

Sotto In Su

The Portent

Nepenthe

The Hour

Red and Green, Red and Green

The Place

Nymphaea

Yellow, and Pink, Violet and Red

Yellow Cross