Allen Bunker Fine Art on Display
Landscape Allusions
Allen calls his paintings ‘Landscape Allusions’ as they are more about the feeling from the landscape rather than an accurate depiction. He explains:
“I try to paint the feeling I get from a particular scene. People come to Maine not just for the good weather and spectacular landscape but to also ‘get away’ and ‘get back to nature’. My goal as an artist is to bring the viewer back to that feeling or emotion. Many times, especially in Maine, the feeling is intense and bold, or cold and foreboding. But then there are those gorgeous landscape skies, land, and water that almost make you want to cry they are so beautiful. They are all a part of Maine and life, and I would like to capture them all in my work. For me it's always been about the possibilities of what lies beyond, or through, or in. This is the larger value.”
About Allen
Allen Bunker, a licensed construction supervisor and construction company owner, started painting to relieve stress while vacationing on Cape Cod and in Boothbay Harbor in the 1980s.
He loved to paint, but at the time it was just a hobby. After finishing a big construction project, the crew got together for a group photograph. On a whim, Bunker painted the portrait. “Everyone liked what they saw. They could recognize themselves in it,” Bunker says. “It was a turning point, and I began to paint all the time.”
In 2007, he and his wife, Priscilla, decided to move to Maine full time. They opened a gallery to sell other artists’ work. One day Allen thought, ‘why not hang one of my own paintings on the wall?’ It sold immediately. So he hung a few more, and the rest is history.
Allen and Priscilla are currently renovating an 1875 farmhouse into a home and studio in West Newfield, Maine.