• Jeong Im Huh • My Favorite Animal • Instructors Exhibit • HugeDetail • Sheila Asbell-Allen • Peter Olson • Jan Holder • Mackinaw River Project • Magnificent Obsessions • Function • Dennis French • Dorothys Red Shoes •

The exhibition, Blue Skies, featuring paintings by Sheila Asbell Allen, will be on view at the McLean County Arts Center this Friday, February 18, through March 26, 2005.

Originally from Pekin, Sheila Asbell Allen moved to Bloomington/Normal to study at Illinois State University, where she received her BFA in printmaking, and her MFA in painting. Sheila, and her husband Les Allen, own Paintin’ Place Art Supplies in downtown Normal.

Sheila Asbell Allen uses distinctive painting techniques mixed with surprising choices of color and composition to create uniquely personal images that are both mysterious and beautiful. Her vocabulary of iconic shapes and figures, utilized in endless combinations with varied light and value, present the viewer with open-ended narratives about emotion and experience. By careful and specific placement of the figures and shapes, Allen endeavors to produce visual tension in her paintings that, she says, serves as "a metaphor of the trials and storms in all of our lives," while also creating "a balance of hopefulness" that is the undercurrent of human experience.

This exhibition is generously sponsored by James Huddleston and Timothy Kent Gallery and Framing.