About | Neal Allen Fine Art Pastels

Biography

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. 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 Institute, and have been critiqued by Louise Frechette, PSA and Mary Padgett, PSA and attended workshops with Kathleen Galligan, PSA, Sean Dye, PSA, Michael Chesley Johnson, PSA MPAC and Tony Allain, PSA IAPS-MC. I was a founding member of the Syracuse Pastel Artists, and am a member of the Ontario (NY) County Arts Council and an associate member of the Pastel Society of America; I have been painting seriously in pastels for the last ten years.

I have had work accepted in the Adirondack Pastel Society National Pastel Exhibition, the Pastel Society of New Hampshire Annual Juried Art Show, the Arkell Museum Annual Juried Art Show, the Mohawk Valley Center for the Arts Annual Juried Show, and the 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 New York summer show 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 been invited to participate in the Old Forge Plein Air Paint-Out on several occasions. I have had solo shows at Frankie's Taste of Italy in Old Forge, NY, the Cherry Branch Gallery in Cherry Vally, NY, the NBT Bank in Norwich, NY, the Arkell Museum in Canajoharie, NY and the Cheshire Union Gallery in Cheshire, 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.