Craig Alan American , b. 1971
“I am a student of the arts and will be until I pass. I love to study and practice technique. These paintings are an extension of the abilities bestowed upon me.”
Craig Alan's thought provoking and detailed paintings contain a mix of raw technical ability and rich imagination. Working in a style with elements of pop-art and surrealism, the artist experiments with creative techniques, and the use of metaphorical imagery, developing his subject matter and direction in the process. Craig Alan is an artist with a restless eye, pushing the boundaries of visual expression without constraints.
He is most known for his Populus series, which steps outside the tropes of those well-worn formal enterprises with strikingly original images created from hundreds of tiny figures on a white ground. The hundreds of tiny people which Craig depicts in his paintings, represent characters from all walks of life. These figures exhibit a variety recognized character and body types, conveyed through the artist's brilliant use of posture and movement. The people are often arranged in patterns to form an iconic image; "connected" to each other on multiple levels. As Alan continues to explore and develop his subjects, this theme of connectivity remains consistent. His subjects range from nondescript urban environments and architecture, to technology and pop-culture.
At first glance the paintings look like aerial photographs, though a closer inspection reveals that they are painstakingly hand-painted. The images had their genesis in some photos Alan was taking of a wedding party from a high-rise balcony. “Later on that evening I noticed, in one shot, the group of people appeared to have formed an eye. That’s all it took to get the gears moving fast, that one photo is what started it all,” according to Alan.
Craig Alan's Populus series is now home to dozens of celebrities and icons of all ages including: Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Freddie Mercury, James Bond, James Dean, John Lennon, Audrey Hepburn, Picasso, Van Gogh, Michaelangelo and many others.
“Each piece contains a range of 400 to 1,800 people in it depending on the type of work it is,” says Alan. The creative process is labor intensive: “I can spend anywhere up to 150 working hours and beyond on one section of a painting depending on the size however, I like to work on more than one painting at a time, I like the challenge, and it sparks new ideas.”
Craig Alan was born in 1971 in San Bernardino, California. Though always drawn to art, Alan's creativity did not fully develop until his family transferred to New Orleans as a child. The vivacious culture nurtured Alan's capacity for detailed visual interpretation. Inspired by the city's enthusiasm for creative expression, he began exploring his own innovative impulses.
Alan's earliest experimentation took the form of street portraiture, an endeavour that helped him perfect his flair for replicating the human figure and afforded the budding artist a sense of economic security. He saved his portrait earnings to pay for school and art supplies. Though he always planned to pursue a formal art education, Alan continued to develop technically and conceptually through his own diligent studies.
During his sophomore year at the University of Mobile, Alabama, Alan undertook vigorous training in art. His enthusiasm for his studies immediately propelled him into the scholastic limelight. With a focus on studio arts, Alan earned an area award for academic excellence. The University's most prestigious exhibition, "Art with a Southern Drawl," featured 42 of Alan's pieces, chosen from a field of more than 1,600 submissions.
