Olivo Allen

I've always loved drawing, and have always drawn.  I never took art in high school, but filled my subject notebooks with drawings of the life around me.  I knew very little of being an artist before taking an elective drawing class at Texas Tech University.  I declared myself an art major the next semester.  

After transferring to the University of North Texas, I earned a BFA in painting and drawing in 1992.   Followed by some grad school here and there, exhibits and shows here and there.  I moved often after college, unable to stay in one place very long.  Bulky paintings were often given away, left behind, or dumpstered when I changed locale, but I always had my sketchbooks, paper, and pencils.  Drawing became an end, and not something preliminary for a painting.  When I finally settled down in Northern California in 2003, I stuck with drawing.

I think of my subject matter as quiet, contemplative, solitary.  I love the immediacy of drawing, love the small details created with just a pencil.  From simple studio-style poses to  figures in a room with designs on the couch and carpet, it remains simple mark-making.   

Along with realistic drawings, I've been working more expressively.  No models, little or no reference, just me and my pencils.  I love both styles, working daily on both. 

Photography has always been an influence on me, both studying images and shooting photos myself.  The freezing of a moment, spending time studying the figure, finding details I want to emphasize or under-emphasize.  Adding props and adjusting the light and shadow.  With most pieces, I try to hint at a story, one that I'm as unaware of as the viewer, but want to know more.

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