| ARTIST BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: | Elizabeth Allen was born in London and raised in Jamaica and England before immigrating to Canada with her husband in 1956. She is the mother of three children and lived in Pincher Creek, Alberta; Fernie, British Columbia; Regina, Saskatchewan; and Edmonton before settling in Calgary in 1964. In 1977, she collaborated with Antonia Wicherts, a fellow graduate from the University of Calgary, to open Calgary’s first formal printmaking studio. The Station Studio provided printmaking facilities for recent graduates and other artists without their own equipment. Dozens of artists practiced there over the years, and the studio provided demonstrations to spread a better understanding of printmaking as an art form.
Allen’s art is held in several public and private collections in Canada. She finds her themes in the fabric of the natural environment and living things, and her work includes etchings and lithographs, watercolours and mixed-media drawings. She has organized a life drawing group and served on the board of the Muttart Public Art Gallery (now the Calgary Art Gallery) for thirteen years. Allen has attended the Chelsea School of Art in London, England, the University of Alberta and the University of Calgary where she earned a BFA in 1976 in drawing and printmaking.
Compiled 2014 |