The need to convey a message coupled with a desire to entertain the viewer is a hallmark of the German-born expressionist artist Petra van Allen who lives and works in the Algarve. And the reasons are not difficult to find in the light of her colourful background. Before deciding to devote herself to art she trained as a theatre designer in London and worked for a spell with the famous English National Opera. “As a theatre designer you learn how to tell stories and interpret other people’s ideas but the time came when I wanted to direct my own stories,” she said.

Her work shuns the conventions of painting on a flat surface and she has increasingly been drawn to sculpture and installation, creating three dimensional objects and assemblages that often straddle the gap between fine art and theatre design. She is mercurial, sometimes eclectic, and varied in her style and, above all, experimental, currently producing solid figurative sculptures in fired clay. These are frequently combined with found objects to create works that express her vision of life, often sensual and whimsical, employing elements that focus on femininity and the fetish.

They are the ‘stage props’ of her personal drama and her search for artistic identity and there is an autobiographical edge to many of the works. An old metal wheel found on a dump-site is encased by a wire mesh, trapping three clay sculptures of women who seek to escape. The title is “Rolling Along”. She admits the work has autobiographical connotations. The sartorial trappings and accessories of the female wardrobe as well other mundane ephemera and other objets trouvés exercise a strong influence on her imagination.

A woman’s bra made with wire and embellished with black feathers and suspended in an old window frame is placed on an abandoned chair recovered from a tip site. Beneath is written in seven languages “The Ravens May Bite”. “The message derives from a warning notice in the Tower of London not to feed the ravens as they may bite but in the work it means: don’t feed this woman.”

Nearby, in her studio on the outskirts of  Silves is a wooden frame with the image of a pair of scissors and hanging on a slender cotton thread are three petals inscribed with the words “I am fragile” and above it “The art is in the cut”. A teacup and spoon made in red silk and surmounted by a pair of princess’s slippers lovingly crafted in red and white silk is entitled “Waiting”.
“I have always worked with words and I make organic forms that carry messages,” she added.

The clay figures of women in a variety of poses show the influence of the German expressionists of the early 20th century, combining the primitive with a crude sensuality and these have recently been scaled up in size. The message in her work springs from a traditional German angst and existentialism. Another offshoot, done on a more commercial level, is ceramic tiles.

Petra was born in East Friesland and moved to Berlin to do an apprenticeship as a seamstress, making shoes, hats and clothes. She moved to London to study theatre design at St Martins School of Art then a further three years at John Cass School of Art in London studying sculpture. She later settled in the Algarve and completed a university Master of Arts thesis based on how living in southern Portugal influenced her art.

More recently she has been studying for a second MA qualification in museum education and community arts, focussing on the need to promote Portugal’s rich cultural patrimony to a wider audience. A member of Arte Algarve, she is clearly an artist for all seasons.