Allan Martin
Allan works from photographic references most often changing and montaging elements so a ‘place’ doesn’t exist but is created.
Tones can be radically manipulated, it is not Allan’s intention to then simply translate the source in the process of painting, he wishes to achieve a further shift, something present which is unknown, a finished painting he doesn’t fully understand.
Grids are often present in his work, while useful in constructing a painting he also reworks, redraws and edits them so traces remain. A continually evolving series ‘These Dark Woods’ which allows nature to speak of the human condition and more include these marks, they can allude to maps, scales, cross-hairs, crosses and more.
A finalist on Landscape Artist of the Year 2018, Allan has also had work selected for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, ING Discerning Eye, National Open Art Competition. Sixty-nine of Allan’s works are included in the collection of the iconic Hotel de Crillon, Paris, while his work can also be found in the Soho House collections of Babington House and The Soho Farmhouse and private collections in the UK, Ireland, France, USA, Australia, and Chile. Collaborative photographic portraits with Annie Lennox are in the collection of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
