Richard Allen
Originally from Newbury, Berkshire, an Art Foundation Course at Brighton was followed by a Degree in Graphic/Illustration at Kingston Polytechnic. After graduating in 1987 Richard became a freelance illustrator working mainly in scraperboard for advertising, publishing, packaging and newspapers. However, His work has gradually drifted towards his main interest of birds and wildlife especially after winning “British Birds – Bird Illustrator of the year” in 1993. Moving to Wivenhoe, the bird rich estuaries and marshes of the Essex coast have provided an endless source of inspiration and fuelled a passion for field-sketching. He enjoys the immediacy of working directly from nature, trying to capture the life and vitality of wild birds, and the patterns of plumage, light, water and foliage.
More recently he has returned to printmaking producing two collections of eighteen linocuts for the books “Coastal Birds” and “Garden Birds” published by Jardine Press. Also illustrating with linocuts “The Long Spring” by Laurence Rose and published by Bloomsbury.
An elected member of the Society of Wildlife Artists he regularly exhibits at the Mall Galleries, is working on a new set of linocuts, and is putting the finishing touches to the illustrations for “Birds of Paradise” due to be published in Dec 2019.
Go to our Printmaking Techniques page for more information on how these prints are created
