Collection: Jennifer Allan : Painter : Burry Port

I find a profoundly necessary sensory and physical pleasure in the sheer process of making marks, of moving a pencil across paper, of laying one brush stroke of colour next to another, of manipulating and moulding material into a gesture or form.

I sometimes find it surprising that I do not intuitively work more abstractly and yet my compulsion to make marks to make meaning - to explain myself to myself - seems to demand a figurative and narrative mode.

These processes are fundamentally self focused and introspective and also, in the search for identity and for making sense of self, there is a seeking to belong. Thence my visual explorations are intended for sharing - invitations to witness - desire for acknowledgment and identification with my inner world as something known, seen and understood.

I graduated in 1970 from Glasgow School of Art having specialised as a printmaker and did not start painting and consistently exhibiting till the early 90’s. Concurrent with this shift I began training as and ultimately becoming, a practising and teaching Psychotherapist. Clearly this was not coincidental. I retired from my psychotherapy practice in 2016 and have continued to expand my painting practice, exhibiting nationally and internationally. I have work in private collections in Scotland, Wales, England, Germany and Australia.