Gordon Allen

Gordon Allen grew up on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. His love of hunting and fishing is reflected in his beautiful etchings. Gordon Allen, who currently resides in Savannah, Georgia, divides his time between etching and painting and is devoted to the "plein air" methods of painting outdoors from life. He is known as one of the finest etchers of the sporting scene in America today. His painting subjects range widely from the urban landscape of Savannah, GA and its surrounding low country to the salmon rivers and environs of Maritime Canada where he has largely spent his summers over the past several years.

For the last ten or more years, Gordon has been busy with etching and painting and has done little illustrating. His etchings are now shown in galleries across the country in cities such as Grosse Pointe, MI; Vail, CO; Bozeman, MT; San Francisco, CA; Ketchum, ID; Annapolis, MD; Nantucket, MA; Cleveland, OH; Cody, WY, and Jackson, WY, among others.

Gordon Allen

Gordon Allen has been an avid fly fisherman and bird hunter since his childhood in Maryland, and his work often reflects those subjects. Gordon divides his time between etching and painting, and is devoted to the “plein air” methods of painting outdoors from life. His painting subjects range from the urban landscape of the East Coast to pristine wilderness in Canada and Alaska. He is known as one of the finest etchers of the sporting scene in America. His work is often used to raise funds for conservation organizations such as Ducks Unlimited, Trout Unlimited, The Ruffed Grouse Society, and The Atlantic Salmon Foundation.


EDUCATION
Mr. Allen attended the Maryland Institute College of Art, the Boston Museum School, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art and the Schuler School of Fine Art in Baltimore, Maryland. He has attended painting workshops given by William Reese, Skip Whitcomb and Kevin Lynch.


BOOKS ILLUSTRATED
Mr. Allen began his art career at age twenty when he illustrated his first book. In the next dozen years he went on to illustrate more than twenty books for New York publishers, most of them in the sporting genre.
Some of them are as follows:
Mostly Tailfeathers, by Gene Hill
The Complete Wilderness Paddler, published by Alfred A. Knopf
Recollections of a Shooting Guest, published in a limited edition of 1000 copies by Amwell Press
The Best of Sheep Hunting, published in a limited edition of 1000 copies by Amwell Press
Skyline Pursuits, published in a limited edition of 1000 copies by Amwell Press
Fishing the Dry Fly for Trout on Rivers and Streams, by Art Lee, published by Atheneum Books
Vermont River, by Walt Wetherell, published by Nick Lyons Books
Making Hay, published by Nick Lyons Books
Silver, the Life Story of an Atlantic Salmon, by Roderick Haig-Brown, published by Lyons-Burford Press
Heron Hill Chronicle, by George Reiger
A Wedding Gift and Other Stories, by John Taintor Foote

Gordon’s work has also appeared in Gray’s Sporting Journal, The Atlantic Salmon Journal, Big Sky Journal, Fly Fisherman, Rod and Reel, Sports Afield, Field and Stream and Outdoor Life.


SHOWS
For the last ten or more years, Gordon has been busy with etching and painting and has done little illustrating. His etchings are now shown in galleries across the country in cities such as Grosse Pointe, MI; Vail, CO; Bozeman, MT; San Francisco, CA; Ketchum, ID; Annapolis, MD; Nantucket, MA; Cleveland, OH; Cody, WY, and Jackson, WY, among others.

He has participated in a variety of shows with sporting themes, such as the following:
The Art of Fly Fishing – A Visual History, 1996, Academy of the Arts, Easton, MD
Masters of Wildlife and Sporting Art, 1998, 1993, 1991, Ligonier, PA
Plantation Wildlife Arts Festival, 1998, 1996, Thomasville, GA
Visions of the Natural World, 1995, 1994, Airlie Center, Warrenton, VA
The Art of Casting, 1999, American Museum of Fly Fishing, Manchester, VT

Mr. Allen began his art career at age twenty when he illustrated his first book. In the next dozen years he went on to illustrate more than twenty books for New York publishers, most of them in the sporting genre.
Some of them are as follows:
Mostly Tailfeathers, by Gene Hill
The Complete Wilderness Paddler, published by Alfred A. Knopf
Recollections of a Shooting Guest, published in a limited edition of 1000 copies by Amwell Press
The Best of Sheep Hunting, published in a limited edition of 1000 copies by Amwell Press
Skyline Pursuits, published in a limited edition of 1000 copies by Amwell Press
Fishing the Dry Fly for Trout on Rivers and Streams, by Art Lee, published by Atheneum Books
Vermont River, by Walt Wetherell, published by Nick Lyons Books
Making Hay, published by Nick Lyons Books
Silver, the Life Story of an Atlantic Salmon, by Roderick Haig-Brown, published by Lyons-Burford Press
Heron Hill Chronicle, by George Reiger
A Wedding Gift and Other Stories, by John Taintor Foote

Gordon’s work has also appeared in Gray’s Sporting Journal, The Atlantic Salmon Journal, Big Sky Journal, Fly Fisherman, Rod and Reel, Sports Afield, Field and Stream and Outdoor Life.

    As an artist, my work comes from my life experience an, of course, from my love of art and its history. For me, both etching and painting are opportunities to experience the world, whether man-make or natural, and to study what is there. I feel that I have only scratched the surface, literally and figuratively, of what the world offers, and I enjoy the challenge of trying to capture some of its faces and to share them with others.

    I like nothing more than spending all day outside painting, whether in the middle of a vast, alive marsh, or on a stretch of trout or salmon river studying a subtle composition of water, grass, and sky. Painting is the majority of my work.

    Etchings offer me the opportunity to work in the studio at a slower, more studied pace, and to create images which can be reproduced in small editions and so shared with more people. My etchings are done on copper, and I carefully and meticulously print each one on German Etching paper with my own special blend of inks. I've been etching since 1983, and I find it a fascinating discipline about which there is always much to learn and enjoy.