On an oceanfront road in Crofton, sits a small art studio, but inside you won’t see those ocean views. The curtains stay drawn to limit the light and reflection so that Harold Allanson can sit and paint. Watercolour is his medium, and this room is proof he’s spent a lifetime learning his craft.
One of Allanson’s paintings was recently selected, among 24 others, to be donated to the Royal Collection Trust of King Charles III, where it will be displayed at Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace.
The Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour (CSPWC) have been working on this initiative for decades, gradually contributing 100 contemporary Canadian watercolours to the Royal Collection in alignment with its 100th anniversary. The first two installments were donated in 1985 and 2000, with the final 25 paintings being sent off earlier this year.
In December, Allanson travelled to Toronto to take part in the CSPWC’s 100th anniversary gala dinner and join the other selected artists in a moment of collective recognition.
“It’s nice to have happened, but it doesn’t set my world on fire,” he says with a laugh. For him, the real reward is simpler — time spent with other painters doing similar work.
Allanson was drawn to drawing and painting from an early age. Diagnosed with dyslexia, school “didn’t go too well,” and he eventually dropped out of high school. A few years later, he found his way into art school in Chicago, where things began to click. His success in art school was cut short due to a lack of funds and a letter from Uncle Sam.
He left art school and fell back into trucking — a job that gave him a constantly shifting view of the world.
“I’m glad I spent my life doing what I did,” he says. “Because it gave me all those life experiences.”
Those miles still show up in his work. Behind his desk sits a painting of him and three friends from his trucking days. The Crofton-based painter draws heavily from lived experience, often painting places and people he knows well. Most of his pieces begin with photographs he’s taken himself — snapshots of working life, coastlines and cowboys.
“When the camera goes out the door, in my pocket, in a sense I’m working all the time,” he says while scrolling through images on his computer. Many are variations of the same rocky beach in Ucluelet — light shifting slightly between each frame, almost like he’s trying to catch the same moment from every angle.
These days, Allanson says he doesn’t work with quite the same intensity he once did.
“My attention span isn’t what it used to be,” he admits with a small laugh. “At this stage in my life, I can’t just sit here and paint all the time — you have to go for your doctor’s appointments,” he adds, laughing again.
Soon, some of his work will hang in the royal collection but back in Crofton, the studio stays quiet, the curtains drawn and the work continues. He paints when he can, teaches workshops for local artists, and spends much of his time with his wife and fellow painter, Merrily, and Jenny, his dog.