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Streets Ahead!
06 May 2021
We had the pleasure of speaking to cover artist, Alan Russell-Cowan aka Alan Streets, about his unconventional career as a plein-air artist.
Alan is an incredibly talented, self-taught artist who started his career doing acrylic paintings on the streets of New York, where his work became popular and well-known. After spending 10 years in New York, he then returned to the UK and expanded his repertoire to include UK cityscapes, imaginary scenes and woodcarvings. But his career hasn’t necessarily been a smooth journey – with Alan using his art to distract from his struggles with mental health.
Alan started his career as a plein-air artist in New York, where he would paint acrylic cityscapes on canvas and sell to passers-by. He also travelled around America, painting a range of famous landmarks from other big cities. After returning to the UK in 2011, Alan continued to paint plein-air for three months, before deciding instead to paint from photographs.
He said: “When I was younger, my style was quite controversial, so I struggled to sell my paintings. But as I evolved as an artist, I had much more success and earned a reasonable living selling my cityscapes. I had a lot of support from the public, and I found that my style of artwork was more popular in America, where people tended to invest more in art. In London, my work is still popular, but the levels of crime on the streets means that I prefer to paint from photographs!”
Alan has been an artist his whole life, after being inspired by esteemed artist Salvador Dali as a teenager. But, although painting brought him to fame, he also works with other mediums and enjoys drawing and woodcarving. He began drawing extensively at the age of 23, after being admitted to hospital for schizophrenia – ever since then he has been drawing to relax his mind, enabling him to paint better paintings.
As an artist, Alan is always looking to expand his work: “I took up woodcarving as a hobby when I was in my 40s, after finding a piece of mahogany in a skip. I carved a swallow into the wood, sparking a love for the craft. I bought some blocks of wood and some carving tools and worked on my technique – now I can carve almost anything! Because of that, my woodcarvings are the pieces that I’m most proud of.”
Much of Alan’s work now comes from his avid imagination, from which he paints imaginary scenes. His work is immediately recognisable, incorporating a bold use of colours and reflecting the unique way in which Alan portrays the world around him.
Alan said: “Some of my favourite paintings of mine are the larger-scale imaginary scenes from the 90s, including ‘A Bolt from the Blue’ and ‘London Calling’. But it’s hard to choose, I love my plein-air work and woodcarvings too!”
These imaginary scenes are colourful and stimulating, with each painting using characters to tell a dark and sometimes humorous story in an everyday city setting. One painting in particular, Zombie Virus Outbreak, bears striking resemblance to the world’s current situation - the painting is about a laboratory accident that results in the creation of a Zombie virus, starting an outbreak. The idea was inspired by horror films, but little did Alan know it would become so relevant.
Despite being a street artist at heart, when asked about the importance of framing Alan said it makes all the difference, and loves an ornate, antique style frame as well as wood and metal.
“A good frame has the ability to make the artwork appear much more valuable and impressive, something that every artist appreciates! The frame draws the viewer’s attention and makes the art the focal point of a room.”
When it comes to the future, Alan will continue creating and hopes to spend 2021 travelling around the UK on his motorbike to photograph popular buildings, which he will then turn into paintings. He also hopes to venture further afield to paint other famous landmarks, and he is looking to return to Western America to paint the famous Monument Valley, as well as the grand churches of Russia and maybe Angkor Wat one day.
To see more of Alan’s fantastic work, follow him on social media or visit his website.
https://www.alanstreets.net/
Facebook: @ArtistAlanStreets
