Marking the Moment: The Art of Allen Blagden

The art of distinguished realist painter and watercolorist, Allen Blagden.

There was a long bench in the living room of our house. And it was full of paper, crayons, watercolors-all the essentials for creating art. And so begins Allen Blagden’s account of his career, training with his father, an art teacher at the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut. From his earliest days, art informed Allen Blagden’s life, taking him to the National Serengeti Park in Kenya, to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC, to the South of France, England, and Ireland, to the Adirondacks and Maine.

Blagden’s watercolors, renowned for their color, compositions, and technique, are held in the permanent museum collections across the United States and by countless private collectors. From detailed pencil drawings that illuminate texture and form, he builds on that foundation to create memorable and accurate renditions of his subjects, and his field of vision is encompassing, ranging from portraits of friends, to landscapes, to birds and mammals of all shapes and sizes. An intense sensitivity and precision pervades his work, elevating even the simplest objects to an emotional crescendo. Keeping in the tradition of Winslow Homer and Andrew Wyeth, these works are timeless classics.