Doreen Allan - About Me

I was brought up in Penzance, Cornwall. My love of painting developed at school under the teaching of Alexander MacKenzie. I enhanced this by attending classes at the Penzance School of Art in the early 1960s.

As with many others, work, marriage and raising a family away from my native Cornwall filled the intervening years. Returning to Cornwall in 2001 to live at Lelant revived my passion for painting.

My Cornish roots shape my life. My father's family were local fishermen, working out of Newlyn for two generations. Several generations of my mother's family lived at the Lizard. My grandfather was a lighthouse keeper; his father a renowned serpentine turner.

I paint what I enjoy. I have no fixed style, my work is very varied, but I do try to introduce an abstract essence to my paintings.  I also try to convey my love of both life form and the form and colours of the Cornish landscape I see around me every day.

My aims are to continue to enjoy my art, to expand my subject matter and to exhibit my work to a wider audience.