Gary Allen

Gary Allen was born and raised in Amarillo, Texas in 1955 and is one of the premier pencil artists in the United States. Over the years he has won first place in 30 art competitions from the district, regional, state, to the national levels. His work has been entered into the Luxembourg European World Art Competition.While he was in high school, a national art scholastic committee rated him as the best high school pencil artist in the nation for his drawing called "Saturday Morning." He has been a finalist 3 times in the San Antonio Fiesta Poster Art Competition.He is the "art grandson" of Georgia O’Keeffe who taught art at West Texas College in Canyon, Texas which later would become West Texas A&M University. O’Keeffe mentored and became friends with Emilio Caballero who eventually followed her as the art teacher. Caballero, in turn, became life-long friends and mentored Allen who graduated from West Texas A&M with a cum laude bachelor's degree in art education and then a master's degree in art and a master's degree in administration and political science.He taught high school art for 30 years, as well as being a principal and tennis and track coach at times. He is considered an expert in art history. He spent time in Oklahoma near Bartlesville and then moved to the San Antonio area 30 years ago to become a school administrator and has stayed there ever since.He states that not only did Emilio Caballero, a master watercolorist, inspire him, but his high school art teacher, Danny Gamble, also a master watercolorist, helped inspire and guide him into a career in art, as well as being a life-long friend. But his third grade teacher, Nora Ellis, is the one that changed his young life by lauding and nurturing his budding art talent, thus growing his confidence in himself.His work is of a storytelling realistic genre while specializing in the medias of pencil and ink. He also has done many acrylic and watercolor paintings and extended into logo design, cartoons for newspapers, and caricatures.His works have hung in the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington D.C. and the Juilliard School of Arts in New York City, as well as, countries such as Italy, United Kingdom, Germany, Slovakia, Philippines, Canada, and Mexico. Celebrities such as Blake Shelton, Donald Trump, and Richard Thomas (known as John Boy Walton) own his work.His artwork has been featured in the Best of the Southwest Art Magazine, Amarillo Accent Magazine, and on local news affiliates with a story on his teaching and his art. CBS news affiliate did a story on him concerning bicentennial murals done for a museum. More than 40 of his works have been made into limited edition signed and numbered prints which significantly enhances their value.He has been called the Norman Rockwell and the Ansel Adams of pencil. Allen says his work is like Rockwell's in depicting everyday life, but his style is much different for he focuses on light and illumination. As far as the photographer Ansel Adams is concerned, he shares a love of the black and white design which has its own niche in the art world.Allen has been trained in the old masters' techniques of oil and watercolor in the use of transparencies and glazing layers. These techniques were used by artists such as Rembrandt and Winslow Homer and Allen incorporated them into how he works with pencils which brings a luminosity of light into his drawings. His study of Rembrandt's etchings and ink drawings, along with Van Gogh's landscape ink drawings influenced him to develop his skills in ink drawing. Many of his pencil drawings take over 100 hours to complete.He says the greatest threat to art in this modern era is the use of AI software technology to create fake art. Some of these so-called artists falsely claim it is their paintings and drawings when, in fact, the art was created by photography and computers and not by their hands. Allen had done drawings well before computers came along and he does not use any computer software to create art.As mentioned in the subtitle of this biography, he wears many hats by being an artist, educator, coach, politician, athlete, writer, and actor. He ran in the 1984 Olympic Trails in the 1,500 meter run and won a bronze medal in the Oklahoma State Championships in the mile run. He has also won a gold medal in the Senior Olympic Texas State Championships in men's singles pickleball. He has run for the United States Congress and for mayor of San Antonio, Texas. He has acted in more than 40 theatrical productions, some of which he wrote, directed, and produced. A majority of the plays were Christian based dramas. During his drama career he was involved in many facets including being a sound, lighting, and special effects engineer, a mural back-drop painter, and a stage set builder.A book is being written about his life and artwork by an art historian and hopefully will come out soon and be available for purchase.