Geoff Allen Featured in Watercolor Artist Magazine

You all know and love Geoff Allen's design and illustration artwork. But he's also an extremely accomplished watercolorist. He's featured in the Summer 2022 edition of Watercolor Artist Magazine. Below is a preview, or find the full article at Watercolor Artists Magazin - Summer 2022 (with paywall, unfortunately). I wish we were allowed to share the full thing. An easier to read version of the start of the article is below the image.

 

text from first the first page of the article...

However pristine and picturesque a beach resort or marina may be, we'll invariably find, not very far away, a dustier, grimier, working world of boatyards, dry docks, repair shops, suppliers and fitters. For an artist, such places offer a wealth of curious sights: elegant boats pulled out of the water to reveal chunky hulls, cranes, rail tracks, scattered tools, boating paraphernalia-and a cast of characters who are expert in their trades.

This is the world that California artist Geoff Allen is drawn to: He's happy to paint the splendid beaches and picture-perfect scenes that the Southern Californian coastline is famous for, but he's continually drawn to the working life that undetpins it all. His paintings, all executed en plein air, give us candid accounts of whaat it's like to be in a boatyard. letting us in on the action of a business with which most of us are unfamiliar. I live in North County San Diego, and the pandemic restrictions made me dig deep into where I live," says the artist. "My favorite places to paint are Shelter Island and Oceanside Harbor, in Oceanside, Calif. On Shelter Island Drive, the one road accessing the island, there's a menagerie of dry-dock companies. One company allows me to paint on site, and it feels like I'm accessing a unique culture that's in constant flux. It's a huge still life that changes every day as boats come in and go out."

Visual Opposites

Although clearly excited by the life and action of such places, it's the visual qualities on display that seem to intrigue the artist most. "It's a place of visual opposites," he says. "I've been drawn to smooth, curved sculptural forms throughout my art career, and it seems natural to me now that I love painting boats. I'm attracted to the contrast of huge smooth white forms against all the sharp, angular, dark and grungy surroundings of a dry dock or boatyard."

Allen's visual pleasure is increased by his enjoyment of the denizens...