Allan Stephens

Original paintings by Allan Stephens

Allan Stephens was born in Maldon, Essex in 1970. Allan's personal and professional history is a tale of two countries. He wanted to be an artist from a very young age, but the traditional routes of an artistic education were not to his liking and he left England at the age of 17 to travel the world.

Four years and as many continents later, he arrived in France where he met his wife, and deciding to settle there, has been painting there ever since.

Allan worked as a portraitist at first, then a period of time in Provence, finally settling in Normandy. Totally self-taught, he opened his own gallery in Normandy in 2003, and has since sold his paintings to all corners of the world, mounted successful exhibitions across France and Belgium, and continues his personal view of life through his paintbrushes.

This exhibition at Courtenay's Fine Art is the first time Allan has exhibited in England, his country of origin!

Now of French nationality, he admits to feeling like a foreigner in England, and his direct, fresh style of painting life as he sees it, shows influences of both a childhood in the UK and an adult life in France.