Freedom in Painting in Porthleven - October Course

Life Boat Studio in the Foreground

Our first course held at Porthleven's Life Boat Art Studio was a great success. Ashley encouraged  a discipline of drawing and sketching around the harbour each day, which became a great source of reference for the paintings made back in the studio. With the weather better than we ever expected, the light and conditions were perfect for painting and the group made the most of the amazing view  from the studio, located directly on the harbours edge.

Our small group of 8 experienced artists were all looking to build on their existing knowledge and further their development as artists. Everyone benefited from the opportunity to focus on their work in a productive environment and over the 4 days  Ashley was able to spend constructive time with each of them, looking at their work and drawing from his experience to help push their painting further.

The artists were spurred on knowing there was an exhibition of their work on the last day and they all rose to the challenge .

Jane McClement's Sketchbook

Jane McClement's Painting

As well as the paintings, the artists sketch books were on display and visitors were intrigued to see how the drawings had developed.

Chris Salmon's Drawing



Chris Salmon's Paintings

Sara Bor's Painting

Jan Bunyan's Paintings









  

Well done to everyone, the exhibition was excellent and very well received.  It was great to see and meet some of the local artists working in Porthleven, including Marie-Claire Hamon and Jan Phethean.

Jane Crane's Painting



Rebecca Child's Painting



Helen Herbert's Paintings

Thank-you to everyone who came along to our Exhibition and to all for coming on 'Freedom in Painting in Porthleven, the work produced in just 4 days was quite remarkable, you should all be very proud !

Open Day Exhibition

Nine Artists in Porthleven - Exhibition Friday 11th October

This week we are very excited to be holding our first ' Freedom in Painting course in Porthleven' at the Lifeboat Art Studio.

Ashley has had a long affiliation with Porthleven which began after seeing Peter Lanyon's 'Porthleven' (1951) painting some 30 years ago. It was also the place that prompted our family move to Cornwall in 2005 and the inspiration for Ashley's first series of paintings about Cornwall with , currently 18 in the series.

We have 8 experienced artists  joining Ashley and they will all be working very hard, looking to push their work even further, taking inspiration from this magical location . The last day will be an opportunity to see and buy the paintings produced - Ashley is also hoping to make 'Porthleven 19' ( working in the evenings of course!) We do hope you can come along and join us!

Our September 2013 Painting Holiday -Photos and Update

 We had yet again a great bunch of people joining us on our September painting holiday and were delighted to have another full house! As well as welcoming many new faces it was especially nice to see some familiar ones and thank you to Rosie and Hunter who had recommended us to friends - hope we lived up to expectations!
 

Rock and the Camel Estuary was our first location on the North coast . A favourite place, where we had taken our first group to, back in April 2011. The weather was glorious and made for an ideal painting morning with the ever changing lines of the golden sandbanks and the transparent blues and greens of the Camel river against the back drop of the green hills speckled with lemon and pink flowers.
 

It was then onto the Longcross hotel, for a delicious lunch before heading off for an afternoon of painting and sketching at the beautiful national heritage spot of Port Quinn. Many of the group were fascinated by the intense colours and formations of the natural rocks and stones while others chose to explore the dramatic wild rugged cliff tops.
 

  

 

On day two, we were in for a few surprises when we visited Charlestown , as they were in the middle of filming a Norwegian children's pirate movie, Captain Sabbertooth. Once Ashley's teaching got under way, even the film crew were interested in Ashley's tutorial and it was the first time we had encountered Charlestown with the odd palm tree thrown in for good measure! It still retained it's charm and character and there was some interesting work emerging. Once again a BIG thank-you to The Pier House Hotel for our hearty lunch, who never fail to look after us.
 

Our next stop was Polruan. It almost wouldn't be the same without a rain shower and although we were tempted to make a detour to the pub, it cleared up enough for everyone to enjoy the walk and viewpoints to the 12th century Blockhouse ruin and the climb to the top of St Saviour's Hill  for a panorama of the coastline.
 

As always, Ashley then stepped it up a gear once in the studio over the next 2 days . Colour was big on the agenda and the group warmed up with a variety of colour exercises. As well as having fun - the canvases used would later be transformed into paintings inspired from the coastal landscape from our 2 days out on location.

 Ashley continued to challenge the group encouraging them to try out new techniques using different objects to make marks. It was great to see people working in a variety of ways. Some on the floor, others splattering, dripping or spreading paint. By the end of the last day there was some really nice pieces of work made and most people had paintings that were quite different to anything they had done before.







Steve Walsh's Painting

Barbara Heseltine's Painting



Rosemary Graham's Painting's



Birgit Ackroyd's Painting

Avenda Burnell Walsh's Painting

 
 
 


  


By Friday evening we were really ready to enjoy our celebratory evening at Asquith's restaurant in Lostwithiel, (After a quick pit stop to the 13th century Globe Inn) . Thank-you Graham and Sally,  the service and food was amazing once again and it was a fantastic end to a wonderful week of painting with lots of hard work, fun and great company. Thank-you all for signing up to 'Freedom in Painting in the Cornish Coastal Landscape'. We do hope you all enjoyed yourselves as much as we did and that we might see you again soon!

Denise & Ashley

  We now have our dates for 2014:  12th - 17th May & 22nd - 27th September 2014.   If you are interested in finding out more or would like to be included on our mailing list for information on courses/holidays or exhibitions, contact denise@ashleyhanson.co.uk or call 01208 77656    
 

Exhibition Previews

'The New York Trilogy', Plough Arts Centre, Devon,  5 - 24 July 2013

 

 

Ashley's well read copy of 'The New York Trilogy' by Paul Auster

 

We enjoyed a wonderful evening at the Plough Arts Centre, Great Torrington on Friday 5th July, where Ashley's latest 'City of Glass 'series of paintings along with work connected to Ashley's travels around the USA, (as a result of a Boise Travel Scholarship from the Slade School of Art) were on display.

 

The 'City of Glass' is  the first story in The New York Trilogy' by American novelist Paul Auster.  Expect to see lots more work connected to the book as Ashley is still buzzing with ideas and can't wait to get started on paintings inspired by the next 2 stories in the novel.

 As part of the exhibition, Ashley has included some studies/drawings that give an insight into the making of the work and helps connect the viewer to the finished paintings.

Amongst the guests was a 'questionable' character that had a distinctive likeness to 2 of the new paintings 'StillmanStillman 10 & 11'. Thank-you Simon (Bor) for wearing that coat on such a hot night!

The vibrancy of the paintings in this wonderful light open space really shows off the work in all its glory -definitely a show not to miss, the exhibition continues until Saturday 27th July.

 

See link for more details http://www.theploughartscentre.org.uk/exhibitions.php

  

 

'The Art of Colour', Exeter, Devon 4 July - 24 Aug 2013

 

It was a very busy week as Thursday 4 July was the preview for 2 exhibitions 'The Art of Colour'  & 'Devon Artist Network' at Gloss-Art gallery in Exeter. Ashley was delighted to be showing his 'Porthleven ' series along with other Cornish work in the front room of this beautiful Georgian gallery.

It was a very well attended opening night and a big thank-you to Lucinda for working so hard and making it such a successful evening.

 

The Hanson Family

A rare photo of Ashley laughing!

 

Also in the gallery are original lithographs by Picasso, Miro, Matisse and Chagall.

The show continues until Saturday 24 August, hope you can pop by sometime over the summer.

http://www.glossgallery.co.uk/artists/ashley-hanson/

Latest Exhibition News

LATEST NEWS - One of Ashley's new paintings 'City of Glass 11- StillmanStillman' has been selected for the 2013 Ludlow Open

 

Ashley latest solo exhibition  opens on Friday 5th July at the Plough Arts Centre in Devon. He will showing his 'City of Glass' series including new paintings completed during his residency at Bodmin's Shire Hall.

Ashley comments about the series, 'After years of struggling for ideas for a painting about New York, a place so iconic, so filmed, painted and written about, I found a way in with 'The New York Trilogy', Paul Auster's deconstruction and reinvention of the detective novel. As a visual artist, I can relate to Paul Auster's layerings of reality and identity and his explorations of chance. The paintings are a complex mix of fact and fiction, manipulations of the different realities of information and imagination.'


To coincide with the exhibition Ashley will be giving a talk on Friday19 July at 7pm about the inspiration, ideas and the making of the series and his journeys around the USA. Cost £5 including wine and nibbles.

 

Colour & Coast Workshop

If you would like another opportunity to work with Ashley, he will be hosting his popular 'Colour & Coast ' 1 day workshop at The Plough on Friday 19 July 10am - 4.30pm. Cost £35.
Using the coastal theme, Ashley will be sharing many of his tips and techniques of how to use colour imaginatively and effectively. All levels and abilities are welcome.

To book either the talk or the workshop, please call the Plough Box Office on 01805 624624

 

 

The Gloss Gallery, Exeter   5 July - 24 August 2013,

PREVIEW: Thurs 4 Jul 6-9pm




Also coming up is an exhibition of Ashley's Cornish paintings including the Porthleven series at The Gloss Gallery, Exeter, Devon. Ashley is very pleased to be given the front room to show case his work. The room has superb light - thanks Lucinda.

Alongside 'The Art of Colour' is an exhibition of work by the Devon Artist Network, which includes work by one of our favourite artists Sara Bor.

We hope you can come along to one of the Previews or even both!


Canterbury 'Freedom in Painting with the Life-Model' Workshop




Shona McGovern

Thank-you to all who attended Ashley's recent workshop at Canterbury Christchurch University. We had another full house and everyone rose to the challenges set by Ashley (as this was no regular life-drawing/painting workshop). By the end of day 2 there was some really exciting work made. A BIG thank-you must go out also to our model Sharon Smithers, who was fantastic.






Anne Marie Lepretre



L to R, 1-2 Yvonne McCann, Kathy Rudman & Terri Leigh




 

 

Some Comments About the Workshop

 

'A lively and fun course, thank-you Ashley, most enjoyable. rekindles enthusiasm every time. Fab Shaz' (refers to our model Sharon Smither's)

 

Tanya Remon

 

'Ashley is always so generous with his time and knowledge he is a refreshing and inspiring tutor.'



Shona McGovern

 

'This is the 3rd workshop I have participated in and I always learn something new and feel that my painting is improving each time. Thank-you.'

 

Catriona Campbell


 

'City of Glass 12 - W107St,E69St' 150x120cms

'City of Glass 12 - E107St,W69St'     150 x 120cms

Went deeper & deeper into the painting today and found my answers.  The orange is immense. You might want to play at 'spot the difference' with the painting in last nights blog. 

 

I was painting in my sleep and went into the studio with a bunch of ideas. Firstly, I felt the left side of Manhattan was too soft, not tough enough. The drawing was strengthened by filling, with flatter paint ,the lovely shape of the Hudson River between the left side of Manhattan and the left edge of the canvas. I found a green that set off the orange/reds. A warmer green line was added to the edge, running in parallel to the now straighter line of the West Side and connecting to the vertical drips of the avenues.   I'm still looking for more, for something else- I realised that the grid of Manhattan needed a horizontal or two to break up the verticals so I introduced W107St and E69St, the green lines flanking Central Park and the streets where author/detective Quinn and his client live.

Already, there was a subtle scaling up of the street grid on the right side of the painting, so taking the main horizontal as E69St, I introduced the image of a tiny ziggurat-roofed apartment building, 3 dimensional not flat, so I could repeat the angle of the lower West Side of Manhattan.  The building went in and went out: all the painting needed was the tiny angle.