BIOGRAPHY
Ashley Hanson is a prizewinning artist based in Cornwall, a member of the Newlyn and Penwith societies. He trained at Canterbury College of Art, 1980-83, and was a recipient of a Boise Travel Scholarship from the Slade. Solo exhibitions include Linden Hall Studio, Deal, the West Gallery IOW, and Modern Artists Gallery.
Instagram: ashleyhanson.art
1 - Could you explain your practice? Only you know why you do what you do.
‘Painting the Novel’ and the coastal landscape are the inspirations for my work. linked by colour, place, and multi-narratives. Working in oils, I enjoy the frisson between information and imagination, between abstraction and figuration, and between the cerebral, the emotional and the visual. Above all is the excitement of placing colour against colour, the art of senses…
There is excitement in starting a new piece, each has its challenges; how do you reduce 100,000 words into a single image? How do you capture the power and movement of a boiling ocean and the wind you feel but cannot see?
In my current ’20 Books=20 Paintings’ series, sourced in crime-fiction, the aim is to capture the distinctive palette of each novel, fused with image, location, incident…
All are in a twin-canvas ‘book format’, celebrating the act of reading.
My latest painting is a return to the ‘City of Glass’ series, sourced in ‘The New York Trilogy’. As my tribute to author Paul Auster, who sadly passed away earlier this year, I reworked ‘City of Glass 59 (PA DQ WW MW)’ to include his initials alongside the initials of the fictional author-detective he created in the novel, Daniel Quinn, the pseudonym Daniel writes under - William Wilson - and in turn, his fictional detective Max Work. The initials are placed around the curve of Broadway on the Upper West Side, a key location. See BLOG:
https://www.ashleyhanson.co.uk/blog/450-city-of-glass-59-dq-ww-mw-pa-70x60cms-2017-24
City of Glass 59 - oil on canvas
2 - Is art relevant today?
Art will always be relevant, whether as a vehicle for protest, subversion, innovation, or pleasure. Art can be both a mirror for society’s ills and injustices or an escape; there will always be a place for beauty and quiet contemplation.
3 – We are always asked what other artists influence us, we want to know what art you don’t like and which influences you?
Looking at art can be an intense visual, physical, emotional experience: for me this includes Matisse, Auerbach, Keifer, Titian, Peter Lanyon, Rembrandt, Diebenkorn, van Gogh. I dislike sterile figurative painting that is all technique, with no emotion or personality and, equally, blatantly derivative abstract painting with no original content.
4- If you could go back 10-20 years what would you tell your younger self?
To believe more - to be less shy and insecure in promoting my work!. I also wish I’d explored more opportunities for funding – there is a lot out there.
5 – If you could go forward 10-20 years what do you hope to have done or not done?
To have shown the ‘City of Glass’ series in New York, alongside new works inspired by Paul Auster’s novel ‘4.3.2.1.’ (4 large panels each devoted to the four possible lives of Archie Ferguson).