ALLEN BLAGDEN was born into a family of outstanding artists. Allen Blagden has painted professionally since his early days at Hotchkiss School in Northwest Connecticut where his artistic training began with his father.

His penetrating renderings of sky and water, of people, and landscapes fall within the academic traditions of American realist painting, best exemplified by Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins, Andrew Wyeth, and Edward Hopper. Nonetheless, throughout the years he has developed his own technique, which is to begin with a linear pencil drawing and build up layer upon layer of watercolor. He prefers dry brush, working slowly, painstakingly, patiently, and with small brush strokes to create a richness of contrasts, and textures, all in faultless draughtsmanship.

Blagden's understanding of the wildlife he paints has been gathered through employment as an illustrator for the Serengeti National Park and for Abercrombie & Kent in Masai Mara, both in Kenya; and for the Department of Ornithology, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.

He has won the Allied American Artists Prize, the Century Association Medal, the National Academy of Design Certificate of Merit, and the Arts for the Parks Bronze Medal Marine Award.

Blagden's work is exhibited in the Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA; the Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH; the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Museum, Wasau, WI; the New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT; the Peabody Museum, New Haven, CT; the Shelburne Museum, VT; and the Adirondack Museum, NY.

Among the exhibitions in which Blagden has participated are the Society of Animal Artists, 1999; Art of the Animal Kingdom, 1999; Birds in Art, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Museum, nine times between 1986 and 2001; and Arts for the Parks, Jackson, WY (bronze medal winner 2000), four times between 1988 and 2000.

Blagden has exhibited in New York City, London, Paris, Newport (RI) and Chicago.