Ashley Hanson

Paintings

15 Jul

Ashley’s distinctive, tactile canvases explore the frisson between information and imagination, between abstraction and figuration, and between the cerebral, the emotional and the visual. Above all is his excitement for placing colour against colour.

In his painterly responses to the coastal landscape and the novel, Ashley’s distinctive, tactile canvases explore the frisson between information and imagination, between abstraction and figuration, and between the cerebral, the emotional and the visual. Above all is his excitement for placing colour against colour.
Oil paint is brushed and knifed, poured and smeared, layered, cut, peeled, embellished and refined. Image and shape of place jostle, side by side. Finally, a painting emerges that is both about the subject and the experience of painting but also, crucially, a vibrant independent entity that intrigues and surprises.
Ashley enjoys working in series, including the ongoing Porthleven series, now up to 74 works; ' 22 Books = 22 Paintings’, sourced in crime fiction; and the award-winning City of Glass, which elicited this moving comment from the series’ author, Paul Auster: “I am incredibly moved by your magnificent paintings. They are strong and beautiful—and haunting. To think that my book could have inspired such vivid colours. I am very happy.”
Born in Blackpool, Ashley Hanson initially studied architecture before switching to painting, gaining a first-class degree at Canterbury College of Art. Following his degree, he moved to London, where he showed with the London Group and was awarded second prize in the Hunting Art Prize. He participated in a Triangle Artists’ Workshop in New York hosted by Sir Anthony Caro and was a recipient of a Boise Travel Scholarship from the Slade School of Art.
An award-winning artist who regularly exhibits across the UK, Ashley has been based in Cornwall since 2003.
2025 - Selected for inclusion in the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, London.
2014 - Elected member of the Newlyn Society of Artists.
2012 - Canvas & Cream Art Prize, London – Joint prize winner.
1997 - Awarded the Boise Travel Scholarship, Slade School of Art.
1991 - Hunting Art Prizes - 2nd Prize.