Born in Belfast in 1959, Barbara Allen graduated with an honours BA in graphic design from the University of Ulster in 1982. During a post graduate course completed in 1984, she was able to concentrate on her favoured subject matter, vernacular architecture.
In 1991, Barbara won a National Trust Arkell Travel Fellowship which took her to Norway and in 1993 she returned to Norway with a major, one-woman show in Bergen.
Barbara has had other solo exhibitions closer to home at Bank of Ireland, Birr, County Offaly and the Ulster American Folk Park in County Tyrone.
Group shows include B.P. Oil Europe Brussels, Europeen De L Aquarelle, Ib Jorgensen Gallery Dublin and Faces in a Bookshop, Kennys, Galway.
Awards include An Chomhairle Ealaion, Arts Council for Northern Ireland, British Council and the John Ross prize for watercolour (Royal Ulster Academy)
Barbara regularly receives commissions from private and public bodies. Her work is to be found in the collections of the White House, Washington D.C., Bass Ireland, Londonderry Port and Harbour Commissioners, Royal Norwegian Embassy, London, Tele (Norwegian Telecom), Ulster Television, and Armagh, Down, Fermanagh and Monaghan County Museums.
One Irish art critic once said of her work, “Here is an artist who can draw buildings: stone and brick, slates and plaster – all rendered with consummate ease and delicious texture”