CDR Monica Allen-Perin, USNR, has been a dedicated Navy artist, working with the Navy History and Heritage Command, since 1996.

After attending the California College of Arts and Crafts as well as obtaining a degree at Texas A & M University she raised her right hand and entered the Navy as a Supply Corps Officer.  In 1995, after 12 years of active duty Allen went on to complete a Master of Art degree in Museum Management while remaining in the Naval Reserves.  She was recalled as contracting officer in 1995 to support NATO in Zagreb, the capital city of the republic of Croatia.  While there, Allen learned of the Navy Combat Art Program.  She submitted a portfolio to the then Navy Historical Center and a few months later found herself on route to Mostar and Sarajevo to create paintings for a Joint Service Exhibit entitled “Teamwork:  Men and Women in the Nation’s Defense” held at the Cannon Building Rotunda on Capitol Hill in 1997. 

In 2003, Commander, Fleet Air Mediterranean (COMFAIRMED) commissioned a series of watercolors as the US embarked on the invasion of Iraq which took Allen to Italy, Crete and Cyprus as well as to the carrier group situated off  the coast of Israel. 

Coming full circle in this watercolor cycle of paintings she later documentedwounded personnel from Operation Iraqi Freedom undergoing therapy at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, DC. Along with select Navy and Marine Corps artists Allen exhibited the resulting paintings in 2008-09 at the Navy Art Gallery's show "Afghanistan and Iraq: Combat Art from the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps combat Art Programs."

In May 2010 Allen was recalled by Commander, Sixth Fleet to document US Navy participation in the Centennial of French Naval Aviation which included observationof joint flight operations onboard both US and French aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean.

Her work has been exhibited at the Pentagon and the Navy Art Gallery, Washington DC as well as reproduced in books and magazines including the "Naval War College Review " and "Fortitudine:  Bulletin of the Marine Corps Historical Program."   Her role as a Navy artist was recognized  in France by the Naval Academy review "la Baille"  in September and in December by her induction  into the Academie du Var.

In addition to the Navy Art Gallery at the Washington Navy Yard, CDR Allen exhibits regularly in Marseille, Toulon and other cities in the South of France.  She teaches watercolor and “buon” fresco out of her studio in La Garde, France.