Win a Workshop with Ashley for your Art Group

Colour, Abstraction & the Art of Cornwall - A Workshop with Ashley Hanson

We are once again collaborating with Great Art and are offering all art groups and art societies a fantastic opportunity to win a workshop with Ashley, who will be bringing one of his most popular workshops to the winning group.  The prize includes a full day's tuition with all materials kindly donated by Great Art, for a group of up to 15 people. 

Ashley will  take the lucky group  through the process of abstraction from drawing into painting. With a sequence of exercises exploring colour, mark-making and composition, using acrylic paints the group will learn how to simplify, edit, refine and 'abstract' allowing the painting to emerge through the process.

'Thermal' - Peter Lanyon

During the day Ashley will also introduce and discuss some of the painters that have influenced his own work, in particular Cornish artists Peter Lanyon, Patrick Heron and Terry Frost and demonstrate and share many of his tips and techniques.The day will end with a brief informal discussion about the work made. 

'Porthleven 20' - Ashley Hanson

It's easy to enter, just click here and complete the competition form - but hurry the closing date for entering is Tuesday 30th June !!

See entry form for competition conditions.

'City of Glass 33 - (Buried)'



'City of Glass 33 - (Buried)'   100x100cms

June 11 p.m

The dots/perforations worked, closing the gap between Manhattan and the left side and also referencing the notebooks of Quinn & Stillman. Space & scale more intriguing/ambiguous.

June 11 a.m

Unable to sleep - 'Washington Square' as a title is too innocuous. The painting is what it is, dominated by the heavy yellows.  I cannot get past the image of a post-apocalyptic New York choked/drowned/buried by oceans of sand.

June 10

Four days in, very close- the colours and their proportions are working now. Manhattan is trapped/held by the heavy yellows, like an archaeological find. 'Sea of Sand' and 'Buried' were the more dramatic, alternative titles at one point. Like how the image sits on the bottom edge. I was happy with the piece at the studio but as soon as I got home and saw the image on screen more ideas emerged that I'll try out tomorrow. I suspect there is a stronger composition if I put in a vertical row of dots/perforations near the left edge which will pull Manhattan towards the left side and subvert both space and scale. It feels a bit tight, lacking in movement but it could be it's just a different kind of painting. Let's find out.

I also have the idea of putting in a differently angled line from bottom left to top right slashing across Manhattan. The image of the tightrope between the Twin Towers: if Manhattan is that far below, how high is the building the viewer peers down from? 

In this painting instead of orientating Manhattan on the vertical, like the other paintings in the series, to break the square I have used the (real) 60 degree angle of Manhattan to create a dynamic diagonal.

In the novel*, Quinn ambles across the square during his meticulously described walk from his home to the southern tip of Manhattan, and then back up the East Side to the Stillman Apartment on E69thSt.

Washington Square was chosen simply because of the shape of my canvas. It is actually not a square but a double square.  Now a small yellow blob, the (double) square originally filled the canvas. The strong angled lines, almost hidden, structure the painting.

detail



colours from 'Buried'

* 'The New York Trilogy', by Paul Auster

Private View to Ashley Hanson's Exhibition 12 June 2015

City of Glass 31- (A Study in Violet)

Over the last three weeks Ashley has moved his studio to Bodmin's Shire Hall Gallery and we would like to invite you to share a glass of wine with us and view the new work, alongside a wide selection of other paintings on Friday 12th June, from 6 - 8pm.


If you are unable to attend the PV but would like to see the exhibition , Ashley is working in the studio everyday this week up to and including Saturday 13th June. Ashley hopes to see you there.

Shire Hall Gallery

Bodmin Visitors Information Centre

Shire Hall 

Mount Folly Square

Bodmin 

PL31 2DQ

01208 76616

Opening Hours:

Mon - Fri  10am -  4pm 

Sat 10am - 5pm

w w w . a s h l e y h a n s o n . c o . uk

'City of Glass 32 - (The Apartment)' 60 x 80cms

 

Two joined-canvases again. At first the divide split the welcoming figure of Virginia Stillman in two, one side clothed, the other naked. The painting is much stronger as an empty space, the doors opening onto the Stillman apartment on E69thSt, where author-'detective' Quinn's assignment both begins and ends.

Janie asked me why the painting was pink, so unlike the darkness of the novel* Aside from there not being a pink painting in the series, the idea was to help disguise the naked figure of Virginia. Perhaps the colour alone is enough to suggest her presence.

The vertical lines and subtle horizontals cut the space, linking to the grid of New York and the other paintings in the series. The centre divide is Park Avenue and the intersection with the main horizontal- where wall and floor meet- pinpoints the location of the apartment on E69thSt.

Another painting inspired by 'French Window at Collioure' by Matisse.

* The New York Trilogy, a novel by Paul Auster