Ashley Davies

Ashley Davies is a talented and prolific exhibiting artist who has worked with the medium of oil paint on canvas since 1982.

Born in Leicester in 1964 of Welsh parentage, Ashley grew up in Northamptonshire and The Forest of Dean before moving to London. Blessed with obvious artistic abilities from an early age, she studied Fine Art at Portsmouth Polytechnic between 1984 and 1987 where influential visiting lecturers included Maurice Cockrill, Jock McFayden, Elizabeth Maggill, Stephen Chambers and Bernadette Kerr.

Following a stint working in a meat factory in Kettering, Ashley produced a stunning series of still life paintings with raw meat as the subject. Work at this time also included unusual 'portraits' of chickens, pigs and sheep.

Further works concentrating on the Forest of Dean led to a series of breathtaking landscapes, which hinted at the explorations into the abstractions yet to come.

Davies' work then focussed on detailed studies of ancient vessels from the British Museum. The result was a series of paintings with vessels picked out in gold, bronze and earthen hues set against backdrops which can only be described as

the most desirable, edible and tactile leather and velvet.

Armed with inspiring comments from Lance Smith and a portfolio of work prepared at her studios at Metropolitan Wharf in Wapping, East London, Ashley gained access to the Royal Academy of Art where she studied from 1990 To 1993.

With three years of studio time and subsidised materials at her disposal, Davies experimented with the application of colour, the unveiling of form and developed an individual style which underpins her work today.

Ashley left her shared Acme studios in Hackney in 1993 and continued to produce work from her East London flat which had the advantage of a 180 degree forest view to the rear and a 180 degree London skyline to the front. It was at this time that Ashley married and began bringing up a young family.

A regular contributor to such exhibitions as the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, the Contemporary Art Society Market, the London Contemporary Art Fair, the Welsh Annual Open and a variety of shows for Chelsea dealer Lena Boyle Fine Art, Davies has exhibited her work every year since graduating from the Royal Academy Schools. Her 'Heart's Tongue' exhibition at The Mermaid Theatre in 1996 was a defining moment and saw a new refinement of the experimental abstract style. Reviews at the time commended the Rothsco-esque colour-fields and her mastery of the medium. The landscapes were becoming more abstract and other materials like flower parts and gold leaf crept into the work.

One of the first British artists to be featured on Channel Four's 'Light Lunch', Ashley has been widely commissioned and examples of her work are included in numerous prestigious public, private and National collections, including Hammersons, Unilever House and KPMG.

Ashley has explored both the figurative and abstract potential of the oil on canvas medium, the combination of both styles and the incorporation of introduced media. Her work is equally astonishing in the use of colour as it is in the creation of depth and emotion. She uses colour to set mood, to frame fragility and to protect vulnerability. A constant theme has been the creation of something incredibly and intrinsically beautiful, then the surrounding of it with layers of impenetrable armour; a dense mass of briars to keep demons at bay. This is often complemented with an element of humour, either in the form of an apparently ridiculous title or the incorporation an equally and seemingly ridiculous motif. Sometimes these subtle quirks can go unnoticed, but nonetheless they help define the artist, the work and the issues of the age: The intricacy and beauty of our nature set against the futility of our existence.

Gradually the abstract landscapes have evolved and developed a figurative narrative with vessels and pigeons creeping back in. As the work continues to grow, close-ups of the delicate lines of a child's profile or the silhouette of a gnarled tree are beginning to become the protected interiors set against the stormy briars of interactions between foreground, background, imagination and memory.

Ashley Davies' work is not restricted to the oil on canvas medium. She also teaches adult education classes in drawing and mixed media and has been artist in residence at an East London primary school as well as producing theatrical backdrops for the ballet.