About

Alan Senior was born London, UK. Aged seven, he inhabited the worlds of Science and Science Fiction and his great hero was Albert Einstein who famously said “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.” Alan had some natural skill in painting and drawing and worked away by himself creating distant planets, undersea gardens and coloured patterns outlined in black. Post-war England was a strange place to inhabit.

“…the creative process fulfils our need to express our experience…” – John Daido Loori

In 1960, he moved west to the suburbs and discovered Art with a new group of friends. “I became a bohemian of sorts, had my hair cut like a mod and dropped out of Grammar School”. He embraced the Beats and Surrealism and his encounters with Zen seeded a lifelong fascination with Far Eastern Art, especially Japan.

By the mid ‘60s Alan had rejected oil paints in favour of acrylics. His earliest works in this new medium were textural abstracts and then elements of Surrealism and eventually Fantastic Realism are seen. His book Suburban Visions covers this period of work.

In 1980, Alan began exploring natural patterns in a formal way using computers. He also began to use random paint effects on gesso panels and subjects include pebbles, flowing water and trees. Then for the next few years he worked on an environmental newsletter and taught in the Art Department of an FE College.

Since his trip to Japan in 2007 Alan’s work has been prolific. His approach to painting Nature has returned to its Eastern origins working on paper as a support, painting with fluid acrylic.