Allyn Engman

Allyn Engman was born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1955. She grew up throughout the northeast - from Pennsylvania to Maine. She graduated from Rhode Island School of Design in 1980 with a BFA in Textile Design. Engman first worked as a knitwear designer, then began designing and producing a line of childrens clothes called "Snapdragon". She went on to become a print designer for a womens dress company, then later spent five years working for a commercial art company as an etcher. Here she worked on copper plates using hard grounds, aquatint, and soft ground techniques.
For the last fifteen years, most of her design work has been floral with architectural and calligraphic elements. She particularly loves images with motion, such as the natural gesture of leaves and flower petals. The fragile, transparent quality of flowers is very inspiring to her. Engman is further fascinated by the overall structure of flowers, such as the transition from stem to leaf and from stem to flower.
Engman works primarily in acrylics, using layered watercolor-like washes and dry brush techniques. When she paints, the process is just as important to her as the end product. It's a voyage every time and she loves it!
Allyn and her husband have lived in Phoenix, Arizona since 1980. They have two wonderful children. She loves to spend her free time gardening, freelance floral designing, playing tennis, reading, knitting and watching old movies.

Engman works primarily in acrylics, using layered watercolor-like washes and dry brush techniques. When she paints, the process is just as important to her as the end product. It's a voyage every time and she loves it!