Allen is featured Artist of the Month

Helene Bannert Allen of Morgan City is the Artists Guild Unlimited featured Artist of the Month for February. A variety of Allen’s art will be on display at the Everett Street Gallery at 201 Everett St. in Morgan City now through Feb. 27.
Allen, a graduate of Brownsville High School in Brownsville, Texas, learned to love art while studying art in high school. Before seeking a university degree in art she married and had children.
Allen studied under Millie McKnight who taught in Patterson and Lafayette, Barbara Brower in St. Francisville, and Carlos Cortez in New Iberia. Then from 1970-79, Allen attended Nicholls State University and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in art.
She studied painting, sculpture, ceramics and printing, which included intaglio, silk-screening and lithograph. During that time, Allen did a six-week excursion through Europe with a student group studying art history and art appreciation. The group visited major art museums in Greece, Italy, France, Germany, Austria and England.
Allen continued to expand her talent as an artist through continuing art education workshops in Baton Rouge and Chicago.
Throughout her years as a student and beyond, Allen was able to travel extensively with her husband (the late Donald Vernon Allen) who worked around the world. This allowed her to share her talents in foreign settings, teaching in both Mexico and Kazakstan. Travel also gave her many occasions to paint, mostly landscapes of various countries including Mexico, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand and Kazakstan.
Locally, Allen has taught private art lessons in home; workshops through AGU, and “Drawing from the Right Side of the Brain” through Nicholls’ Continuing Education Program.
She teaches art for grades K-6 at Immanuel Christian School in Morgan City, and teaches private and group art lessons for both children and adults at the Everett Street Gallery.
Her varied and numerous works include wall murals at The Daily Review and Morgan City High School, the MCHS Marching Band’s banner, baptistery scenes in Brownsville, Texas, and at Immanuel Baptist Church in Morgan City. She also painted a four-wall mural in Mexico City, Mexico, depicting people: groups ministered to by Southern Baptist missionaries.
The gallery is open Wednesdays to Fridays from 1 to 4 p.m. and on Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.