Blog
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- Ashley Hanson
'No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader' Robert Frost
MON 1 JUNE
Paralells between the energy of making and the energy of natural forces, when wind blows and water surges and strong defences become fragile; when the pier in front of the Ship Inn, becomes disconnected, an island...
An exciting mix now between the intuitive and the intended. A unity and strength in the painting and an exciting range of scale after a new top to bottom, through and over purple, with a compositional and emotional power - a risk that came off. The purple mark/harbour is critically refined and controlled - barely - by the flatter geometric yellows: triangle, rectangle and central diamond. I feel I can walk away.
A polite beginning, exploring yellow and mark-making (1) followed by linear structure and two possible harbours (2). The energetic dark marks were transformative (3) balanced by heavier purples (4) but the painting became fragmented, too many elements of similar size - I needed more.
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- Ashley Hanson
When I was at art college in Canterbury in the early 80's, I lived for three years in Whitstable and the beach huts in Tankerton appeared in several of my paintings (see below). A return visit in 2022, sparked a return to this favourite motif, with a new series exploring colour and geometry and difference within sameness...
'Beach Huts (Purple & Teal)' 35x45cm
'Beach Huts (Window)' 50x70cm
Beach huts through a window or yellow wall - with a painting - or yellow frame? Or does 'window' refer to the solitary window, in the beach hut on the left?
'Beach Huts (Cobalt Blue)' 35x45cm
'Beach Huts (Red Door)' 30x40cm
'This is colour, this is drawing, this is composition, this is a love of oil-paint, all the things it can do: wet-on wet, wet on dry, opaque and transparent, thick and thin, weight and lightness, glowing colour - new yellow, new reds - knife, brush, pour, fingers. The decision-making is intuitive and from the painting: what to leave, what to embellish, creating space and colour relationships and ambiguities. I'm enjoying the unintended subversion of reality. The beach huts face the sea, the viewer is on the beach, but the colours of the sea creep in from the right side, behind the beach huts, until a form appears'
'Beach Huts (Pink)' 30x40cm SOLD
'Beach Huts (Yellow)' 30x40cm 'Painting of the Day' with Contemporary British Painting
'Yellows on a wet Red-Oxide/Phthalo Green ground first...then the beach-huts. Work the imge, work the ground, re-draw the image with the ground...move the image, get the spacing right, open up the image, allow the ground equality: this is colour, this is drawing, this is composition, this is instinct, this is knowledge, this is now, this is art history, this is painting...'
'Beach Huts (Stripes)' 40x30cm
'Beach Huts (Ultramarine)' 30x40cm
'Beach Huts (Green Brushmark)' 30x40cm SOLD
'The Lighthouse' and 'Harold Parkinson & Gnasher' 1983
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- Ashley Hanson
We recently welcomed a group of artists (including a returning artist from Canada!) to our spring 'Freedom in Painting' course in Port Isaac. The ambition, as always, was to explore the possibilities of painting and find a personal vision, inspired by the stunning Cornish coastal landscape. As you can see from the gallery above, a collection of strong and innovative paintings emerged over the 5 days, with the artists taking away ideas, studies, methods to inspire new works on their return home.
Our first day was spent on location, meeting in Rock and catching the ferry to Padstow for a drawing session around the harbour. We made sketches from different heights, different viewpoints, moving around the landscape, looking for ideas for painting. After a fantastic lunch at the Harbour Hotel, we continued drawing, recording repetitions and change and movement in the landscape, with criss-crossing ferries and the sandbanks emerging with the receding tide.
'Ladder of Colour' exercise
On Thursday morning, after setting up the studio in Port Isaac Village Hall, I set a colour-exercise, asking the artists to remember and then mix five distinctive colours from Padstow and stack them, like a ladder, onto their canvas. Then they were asked to flood the rest of the canvas with one of those colours. Next they introduced a map-view of Padstow harbour from memory, followed by an image from a drawing, giving their paintings three distinct elements from the subject. The idea behind the exercise was that with a different beginning, you'll get a different painting and in all cases the artists went beyond the exercise to make paintings full of invention and personality.
This is the essence of 'Freedom in Painting', a fusion of information, imagination, intuition, emotion. Working from drawings, away from the subject, allows the freedom to invent...
The artists bonded further with a group dinner at the fabulous Tiny Thai in Wadebridge!
On Friday morning, the sun was shinining brightly as we headed out for a drawing session around Port Isaac, once again drawing from various viewpoints around the harbour and looking for ideas for painting. After lunch, I gave a talk about the translation of drawings into paintings, looking in particular at the work of Van Gogh, Nicolas de Stael, Pierre Bonnard and Frank Auerbach. This was followed by an interactive demonstration, before the artists began their own paintings.
The studio at Port Isaac Village Hall
The next few days were packed with individual tuition and further demonstrations, also referencing the great resource of art history and contemporary painting. As the artists pushed their paintings forwards, there was a wonderful creative spirit in the studio, the artists working hard and generously discussing each others paintings, including my own! (below). On Sunday afternoon, after clearing the studio, as always, we finished with an invaluable group critique, a fascinating discussion of the artists ideas and direction. Port Isaac (and Padstow) never fails to inspire - hats off to the artists!
ARTISTS COMMENTS:
'I have learned more than I thought, and lots to take away. Ashley is a fantastic teacher, help me explore the new world, abstract landscape painting. Very good atmosphere, very relaxing and friendly' WEN ZHANG
'My aim was to go more abstract and I achieved that. Yet another fabulous course. Ashley is so helpful and positive' HAZEL CRAWFORD
'The feedback from Ashley is so helpful and it is also great hearing the feedback on paintings of other people. It is so good to be on a course like this and not feel as if you are painting into a vacuum' ERICA SHIPLEY
'The open discussions are most useful. Very positive supportative environment' CLIVE WOODS
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- Ashley Hanson
SAT 23 MAY
Back home, after a week of Open Studios in Porthleven at the Old Lifeboat House, working on '(Flow of Colour)'. A rollercoaster ride - definitely a 'found' painting - but enjoying the range and punch of the oranges, the floating pink blocks and crisp yellow curve. The painting is full of life and movement, everything charging to the top right corner.
'Pink shapes moving - like boats - through the water'
Open Studio at the Old Lifeboat House
A simplified circular middle basin and a calming grey in the fisherman's pier
Only fragments remain from the first session: the curve on the left and dark marks on the right, but both contribute massively to the composition and movement in the finished piece.
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- Ashley Hanson
25 APRIL 2026
A slow burner. This small canvas has been in my peripheral vision in the studio for a few weeks, as I worked on other paintings, with dabs of colours applied sporadically. With the introduction of orange the colour exploded and with the twin curves (below) I found my harbour(s). A blue pier on the left led to a blue blob on the orange. This became the clocktower, balanced by a bright yellow square, with a large flat, darker yellow pour below, stabilising the foreground. The orange clock pins the tower to the canvas, stops it floating away!
The title came after: the yellow bands suggested 'Low Tide', a harbour drained of water but I went for 'Ladder of Colour', more playful and enigmatic and reflective of that tipping point between abstraction and figuration, where I position my work.
balance...
Two possible harbours below: which to choose?
