Over the four and a half decades of my career, I have put together 38 solo shows on specific subjects, with titles and themes such as: The Joy of Falling, a set of psychologically-challenging paintings and drawings of leaping and falling child figures; a show of oil paintings based on images from a specific Family Reunion; Moments of Awakening, an exhibition with works of art that explored my spiritual quest as a Buddhist; mixed media on paper abstract paintings inspired by classical music compositions called Classical Abstracts; and quite recently, Lush Gravitas, a series of 18 large-format, close-cropped, hyperreal paintings of the faces of young females, the “Lush” referencing the very present and uncomplicated youthful beauty of each of the subject faces, in dichotomy with the ‘Gravitas”, the apparent seriousness and sombreness of expression of each face that belies the evident youthfulness of the subject.

By way of explanation: sometimes the theme/concept drives the choice of images to paint; and sometimes one painting will be the starter image for a series. The latter was the case in the theming of this exhibition, with the appearance of one specific painting, driving the theme Magical-Mystical-Mythical and defining the overall sensibilities of the images I chose to paint and/or chose to add to the show.

Over the years, observers have used various adjectives to describe my work with the three in this present title having come up on a regular basis. And these descriptors became readily apparent to me in a recent work of mine, i.e.: the painting, Baloo’s World: the image of a neighbour’s Akita dog (Baloo) lying in a daytime scene in my back yard in the Maxwell Settlement, staring back across the adjacent field to his home; with a dichotomous night sky and super moon dominating the top half of the image—and all three adjectives, Magical-Mythical-Mystical quite readily applying to the scene. The painting, Evening Swan followed, and then I created Raven Over Dark Water and Old Fox on Thin Ice and others—all of them having at least one or more of the attributes of the show theme. And a series was born.

Interestingly, I looked back on other previous works I had completed in recent years and felt strongly that their inclusion in the exhibition would be entirely apt. And added them to the series.

I decided to use the image of the painting, Homestead Winter Evening as the representative reference reproduction for the exhibition because it not only has magical and mystical sensibilities but has become one of the most popular works of art I’ve ever created, based on observed response and feedback, backed up by the fact that it was the winner of best landscape at a recent large jury show in the Durham Region.

Art Gallery member and bon vivant Roy Mitchell interviewed Allan by telephone about his work and the exhibition hosted by the AGB.  The interview is a fascinating discussion of Allan’s formative years in the Bancroft area, his development as an artist and his current exhibition.  To hear Roy’s interview with Allan, click here.