Mandy McAllen

Mandy McAllen went to The Arts Educational School Tring, but at 16 decided a career on stage was not for her, so after The Berkshire College of Art, studied Theatre Design at the Central School of Art in London and worked in the BBC Design Department for 10yrs.

It was when she left to start a family that her passion for painting was rekindled and has since taken over her life.

Well known in Cookham in Berkshire for her involvement in" The Cookham Festival" since its revival in 2001, she has both been teaching and exhibiting locally for 20yrs and examples of her work are permanently on view in The Parish Centre, and behind the altar in Holy Trinity Church.

Mandy is best known for her watercolours, of local views “painted with light” in which she is heavily influenced by time she spent working with the country’s best lighting cameramen, as a set design assistant with BBC television.

More recent work explores texture, and is in acrylic and collage but still rooted in images of the” real” world, often of the English seaside, towns and villages.

“As an artist I seek to find enchantment in the mundane. I look for shapes and patterns, for light and shade. I revel in texture and colour, creating soft edges, and crisp edges, lines and marks. I try to create volume and depth. Most of all I love pigment. Thick and oozy, thin and dribble, washes, smudging and scratching it, stroking, stippling, spraying, being in control, being surprised.

I have a strong belief that everyone can benefit from time taken out to sit and draw. In a busy world where we can find ourselves always chasing time, it has a meditative effect of focusing the mind and clearing out all the humdrum chatter, whilst opening your eyes to the beauty of detail in everything from an everyday object to a majestic landscape.