I am always in motion, mentally. I see things as I want to see them, meaning my shapes, my colors and my perspective. I love to create happiness in my paintings, with bold and bright combinations.
Jack Allen grew up in Winter Park, Florida and has resided in Jacksonville, Florida for over 25 years. Enamored with abstract art, Allen began painting about fifteen years ago when he experimented with his teenage daughter’s art supplies on a Saturday morning at home.
“I love the intrigue. I enjoy bringing forth my energy and emotions with colors. I like bright, bold colors and movement. I aim to create paintings that cause the eye to wander around the canvas.”
Allen works in his third-floor home studio, in a barn at his cattle farm in Central Florida. Self-taught for the most part, his creative evolution had included devouring images of abstract works by favorite artists including Mark Rothko, Gerhard Richter and Jean-Paul Riopelle.
INTERVIEW WITH JACKALLENARTIST
WHAT IS YOUR BACKGROUND?
Having studied agricultural economics in college at Cornell University, my background is in accounting and finance. In my first real career, I was a corporate banker for a large regional bank in the Southeast US. I became interested in selling more than just corporate banking services and ventured into becoming a commercial real estate broker in 1987. I went to work for the largest commercial real estate brokerage in the counter at the time. The only opening that they had was for someone to specialize in land assets. Since then, I am still a student of the land development processes in primarily Northeast Florida doing land investments and land development in commercial and industrial properties. I attribute my success in real estate to honesty and hard work.
WHERE THE MAGIC HAPPENS
WHERE IS YOUR FAVORITE PLACE
TO CREATE ART
AND WHY?
During cool weather, I love to paint at my farm. I have a beef cattle operation in North Central Florida, where we raise beef calves. It's a beautiful piece of pastoral land where I love to paint outdoors.I don't have to worry about making a mess because if I make a mess in the grass or pastor fields, so what? I just throw the used supplies out and I enjoy the outdoors while I paint.
MOTIVATION
WHY DO YOU DO WHAT YOU DO?
I do all of the things that I do- my work endeavors, my community endeavors, my charitable endeavors, my artistic endeavors- because they give me joy and fulfillment. Painting has become one of my best friends in life. It's very relaxing because I paint primarily for myself, I don't have any external constraints or guidelines that I have to follow, which is good,, because I don't like people telling me what to do. I prefer to act and behave the way I want to, rather than the way someone else may want me to. So painting is relaxing and intellectually stimulating and I find that it causes me to appreciate myself when I'm doing it. I am motivated to be in motion, mentally and physically, which I believe is evident in my work.