EDINBURGH.- Tom Allan’s exhibition “Glad Land” is being held in the National Trust property of Gladstone’s Land, in the historic heart of Edinburgh, 3rd to 8th September 2013.
Allan trained at Glasgow School of Art, and worked with stone masons in Scotland and marble carvers in Carrara, Italy, becoming a full-time sculptor in 1999. He works mainly in stone and marble, has participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions throughout Britain, and frequently attends international sculpture symposia. Elected an Associate of the Royal British Society of Sculptors in 2006.
Sculpture in stone has been a passion for many years – he sees it as an expressive art form, shaping stone to convey emotion, as a painter uses colour and form. Through the stone he attempts to convey ideas and feelings, and to produce an emotional reaction in the viewer. His approach unites the immediacy of direct carving by manual methods with the speed and extra facilities of power tools.
Commissions include life-size statues in Carrara marble of St Peregrine (2005) Pope John Paul II (2006) for Carfin Pilgrimage Centre, Lanarkshire, and the Holocaust Memorial, Serbia (2008). His work in Glasgow includes the Lord Kelvin Memorial, Glasgow Necropolis (2007).
Recently Allan has created sculptures for outdoor sculpture exhibitions at Newby Hall in Yorkshire, Quenington in the Cotswolds, the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens in Romsey, Leicester University Botanical Gardens, Buckfast Abbey in Devon, and Showborough House in Gloucestershire.
Scotland has a long but neglected tradition of stone-carving. To reverse the trend, Tom Allan has organised exhibitions of stone and marble sculpture, and set up Scotland’s first regular International Stone Sculpture Symposium, with events in Stirling, Largs, and Kirkcudbright. Passing on skills is also important for him, through classes for students - from absolute beginners to experienced artists.
Tom is currently based at Glasgow Sculpture Studios, and for several weeks of the year works at a studio in Carrara, Italy. His sculptures are in private and public collections in Britain, Europe, and the Americas.
