Gallery

Alan King, an artist in love with England has captured the hearts of both the English and American public as few others have done. English light, English land and the English people all play their part as do English horses, English pubs, castles and tearooms. Capturing the essence of English High Society of the 1930's and the war years of the 1940's, Alan King records his boyhood memories with oils on canvas. Cornish coves, shire horses ploughing, a West Country railway station, a Devonshire thatched cottage or children fishing in a tree-lined pond are a part of Alan's boyhood. The artist produces a certain warmth in his snow scenes and his famous toy shop paintings seem to come alive with a glow from within. Alan notes that, "Detail is something young artists don't have the patience for anymore" as he painstakingly includes every toy soldier, doll, dinky toy, English castle and tea set into a pre-war shop window. Alan King helps us rediscover not only the wonder of childhood; cricket on the green, steam trains and the warm light in a cottage window, but he helps us to discover the wonder that is England. The war years are of personal significance to the artist and are remembered with paintings of Glenn Miller in the Army Air Force Band in England. Alan King pays tribute to Glenn Miller who played for the boys of the U.S. Armed Forces in airplane hangers and flat-bed trucks in East Anglia, Cheltenham and London. A narrative portrayal of \Miller is on display at the Glenn Miller Birthplace Society, Clarinda, Iowa and in private collections. Paintings of Spitfires caught in the turmoil and all World War II U.S. aircraft are immortalized in paint as Alan uncovers the fighting soul of the English in their darkest hours and preserves that history for future generations.