caroline ashwood
art gallery
Caroline Ashwood artist statement
I need to be immersed in my space where the materials I work with are to hand. I like to get physical with the paint and canvas using my hands to work the surface. I swirl the paint around, diluting it, pouring it, continually moving and shifting the artwork back and forth to keep the colours flowing. Eventually I reach the point when the paint seems to take control and I am simply a conduit for pigment and wash. Its like Ive earned the paints respect and it allows me to share the fun. Its completely visceral. Im not sure whether it by choice or beyond my control. I like that. I revel in the prospect of the paint surprising me yet again.
I am naturally drawn to strong colour and form and particularly inspired by Coral reefs and their fantastical patterns and textures. I introduce washes and interference medium to my work to allow a layer of subtly to move in and around the canvas, creating surrealistic and abstract pieces.
Recently, I heard an author talking about the need to write, everyday, even if your muse eludes you. She said, You need to be at the bus-stop to catch a bus. I so agree with that thought. I paint most days of the week. Im not the kind of creative person who comes up with a concept whilst shopping.
I paint energetically, somewhat spontaneously and with a great deal of animation. There is a conversion of this energy which is evident in the finished piece.
Caroline Ashwood Biography
I grew up in South Yorkshire. As far back as anyone can remember, I have always drawn pictures and experimented with colour and paint. I was the shy girl at the back of the class who never said Boo to a goose. However, you couldnt shut me up when it came to expressing myself on paper. Writing, drawing and painting have always been my voice.
When I was eight, I won a Blue Peter badge for a picture I drew and sent in to the TV programme for kids. By the time I left school I was sure I wanted to make my way in the world through creative expression. So, I went to art school in Sheffield. The world of art opened up to me and I saw its influence everywhere. Not surprising really, given that Sheffield is the home town of people like John Ruskin. At art school I developed a strong affinity with the Ruskin era and the Pre-Raphaelites. A time that was as much about creative thinking as it was about art.
By the time I was twenty, I was drawn to London by the prospect of more learning and being in one of the great art capitals of the world. In the late 80s and early 90s, advertising had a high profile in everyday life. People were actually talking about advertising in intellectual terms. I was curious and wanted to learn more. So I enrolled for a diploma course in creative advertising. Again, it was more about the formulation and preciousness of ideas. I lapped it up. It was great fun and it held the prospect of me making a living from being creative. Not an easy thing to do.
Thats when I got my first big break. The Saatchi Brother, Maurice and Charles were at their peak when they sold their empire and started a brand new agency, M&C Saatchi. Thus, began my award-winning career in advertising. Saatchis was an adrenalin-charged environment open to ideas. Original thought was God. I adored it. The little girl at the back of the class was being recognised for her voice.
I continued to make a career in the ad industry and worked with some of the best creative directors in the business. They taught me the importance of maintaining the integrity of ideas and concepts. The challenge of filling a blank sheet of paper with something that would fulfil someone elses desires was intoxicating.
But, I noticed something about me was happening. The more I immersed myself in the creative process, the more I wanted to express my thoughts not just those of an advertising client. I was feeling a hunger. An urge to pick up a paint brush and make a mark on a canvas and create some original art. To go deeper into my thoughts and feelings, without a brief, without an expected outcome.
By this time, I had been painting at every opportunity and people began to buy my work. Then one day, I declared to my family that I wanted to paint for a living.
I first exhibited my abstract art at The Gasworks Gallery in Faversham Kent. I began to receive commisions from interior design companies and my first major commission was a new collection that would fill an entire hotel in Dublin. It was a huge undertaking. It took months of long days to deliver my best possible work.
Buoyed with confidence, I began to exhibit elsewhere in Kent. Fine art galleries in Canterbury were showing my affordable art and exhibitions of my latest pieces.
I was also exhibiting for the first time in my home county Yorkshire at the Arts Centre, Goole. After being invited to be the featured artist in The Kent Life magazine, it was suggested to me that I should investigate the burgeoning creative community in Folkestone. With the help of a generous sponsor and patron of the arts, this lovely, if slightly run-down, seaside town was coming alive again with artists moving in to purpose built studio space in an area called the Creative Quarter.
I set up studio in the Old High Street. Fellow artists were all around me creating contemporary art and I embarked on my most recent and most creative period. I was on fulltime exhibition at Folkestones Fofu Gallery and I was being hired to create works for local hotels, restaurants and weekender pads for Londoners who were discovering our little secret riviera. Through a contact I was introduced to a London-based, luxury yacht design company that was looking to commission artworks to embellish the walls of a £20 million yacht that was under contruction. The interior designers liked my work and proposed to their client that I be the artist to create the oceanically inspired art that would adorn the lavish bulkheads and staterooms in this amazing vessel. My contribution to the interiors was my largest canvas to date - nearly nine square metres!
In the latest chapter of my artistic life, I have recently returned to my home county. In fact, I now live only minutes from the house in which I grew up. My studio is in my garden and my sense of belonging and fulfilment is palpable.
I am currently attempting to get my work seen by as many people as possible in the North. To be recognised in my place of birth would be very satisfying.
Thank you for taking the time to read my story.
contemporary art on canvas
by yorkshire textural artist
original art texture fine art
abstract art
modern art
affordable art
about my artwork
art for sale
I am naturally drawn to strong colour and form and particularly inspired by Coral reefs and their fantastical patterns and textures. I introduce washes and interference medium
to my work to allow a layer of subtly to move in and around the canvas, creating surrealistic and abstract pieces.
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©Caroline Ashwood 2010 - All text and images
