ARTiculAction
Paul Ashton
about it a lot and then make as arresting and succinct a work with the minimum distraction as possible. However for the point of this interview I’ll concentrate only on the painted 2 dimensional work. Preferring to work in a serial setting as opposed perhaps to making a single instance piece, I would make a personal direction and follow that, for example construct and deconstruct an image/idea of your choice using material which as far as you know has NOT been used by any other practicing artist… quite a difficult proposition in one way or very easy in another way…. I also welcome the discipline of producing under “duress” with “limited” resource. Making art with limitations actually frees up the experience from having to consider other outside influence therefore focusing fully on the idea and then allowing aspects not normally prevalant to come to the fore. Aspects such as single instance or limited space can produce the unexpected and even the unwelcome, which I feel completes the work. Having made work with the walls of two institutions recently. These being as a hospital patient ( road traffic accident ) and a prisoner ( serving 12 months for money laundering) Both experiences were both welcome and phenomenally beneficial to my practice. Arte Povera comes to mind… With regard to the technical aspects of making the work I do make an outline “menu” of say ,ground material and colour, any additional mediums and chemicals. I do make some notes on the process and do archive through film and stills to attempt to document for my own purposes the process. Much of my work does end up incomplete or aborted and this I welcome. The time each piece takes to complete is not an aspect I take into account. I am aware of each stage and how
long things are left to soak, boil ,droop ,soak or whatever the step process may require. Now let's focus on your art production: I would start with Yellow Brunette, an interesting painting that our readers have already started to admire in the introductory pages of this article: and I would suggest to visit http://www.artgallery.co.uk/artist/paul_asht on_2 in order to get a wider idea of your current artistic production. In the meanwhile, would you tell us something about the genesis of this stimulating piece? What was your initial inspiration?
The initial inspiration for Yellow Brunette was a search for how innocence and or beauty are represented. What are traditional representations of womanhood. Having played with the images from the Virgin Mary in religious art to how woman are portrayed in “mens” magazines in the 70’s which is when I first become aware of the body. I found the base image for this piece amongst thousands I had collected and it somehow caught my eye, its Kodak colour hue together with its 70’s playboy almost pose. On closer inspection one can see the star of David which made me wonder if she was aware of the relevance of this. Was it simply a pretty thing on a necklace? Was it simply an object. Was she “just” an object ? Can there be layers in an image perhaps considered by many as soft adult material,given its surface representation? Another interesting work of yours that have impressed on me and on which I would like to spend some words is your diptych entitled Fibi Jane: in particular, I have been struck with the intensely thoughtful nuances of red that has suggested me a sense of dramatic -and I would daresay "oniric"- luminosity that seems to flow out of these canvas that communicates such a tactile sensation... to by the way, any comments on your choice of "palette" and how it has changed over time?