About | Neal Allen Fine Art Pastels

I have always loved to draw, but as a public school music teacher, my outlet for art was primarily bulletin boards until about twenty-two years ago. I had been using chalks to make posters for my then five-year-old son, when I signed up for a summer adult-education course at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute. My instructor told me that if I was really interested in painting in pastels, I should learn how to draw!

I have since taken evening classes in drawing, painting, figure drawing and landscape painting at Munson Williams Proctor Art Institute and have been critiqued by Louise Frechette, PSA, and have attended workshops with Sean Dye, PSA , Mary Padgett, PSA, Michael Chesley Johnson, PSA, MPAC, Tony Allain, PSA, IAPS-MC and Alain Picard, PSA, IAPS-MC I was a founding member of SPA (Syracuse Pastel Artists), and am an Associate Member of the Pastel Society of America, a member of the Pastel Society of Western New York and a member of the Ontario County Arts Council (board member, Exhibiting Artist); I have been painting seriously in pastels for the last ten years.

I have had work accepted in the Adirondack Pastel Society Adirondack National Pastel Exhibition, Pastel Society of New Hampshire Annual Juried Art Show, the Arkell Museum Annual Juried Art Show, in the Mohawk Valley Center for the Arts juried show and in the open View Adirondack Art Show (Old Forge, NY). In 2008 I had the honor of placement in the Masters Division (top 15% of entrants) and winning third place in the pastel category in that show, and in 2012, I placed second in the oil/acrylic/pastel category. My work was juried in to the Northeast National Pastel Exhibition, also at View, where I maintained membership until 2020. Other honors include Outstanding Merit at Paint Palmyra, Palmyra, NY in 2022 and the Pat Bashart Memorial Award from the Pastel Society of Western New York, 2023.

My work has been featured in the New York State United Teachers’ Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Auction; I was invited to submit a painting in the Family Support Hawaii Benefit in Kailua, Kona, Hawaii, and have had solo shows at the Cherry Branch Gallery in Cherry Valley, NY, the NBT Bank in Norwich, NY, the Arkell Museum in Canajoharie, NY, the Cheshire Union Gallery in Cheshire, NY, as well as the Fort Hill Performing Arts Center and Wood Library, both in Canandaigua, NY. I am represented by Railroad Street Artworks in Fairport, NY.

Originally from Vermont, I lived in central New York teaching public school general music for thirty-three years, and am currently retired, residing in the Finger Lakes with my wife, Tracy.