Blog
- Details
- Ashley Hanson
WED 7 JUNE
A great day in the studio. Incessant refinements of colour, design and drawing until the essential remains, reconnecting to the idea that sparked the painting, vessel within a vessel. Breaking the symmetry was key and having confidence in the shapes, many of which are specific to Porthleven. The finished piece has a beautiful simplicity and depth of colour and meaning.
detail
Brought in two 'vessels' (4) but now too complicated - one has to go! I kept the linear 'vessel', now hanging from the red line with a mast at a much more satisfying angle, leading the eye upwards.
Took out the green (3), a colour too many. Missed the vertical up the left in (1) so put it back, with a new circle. More elegant now, with more space to the right.
SAT 3 JUNE
Vessel as harbour and boat/ship. The idea of a vessel inside or alongside or hanging from a vessel. Working out the design and proportions and building up the colour. A good start. drying super-fast in this heat! Suggestions of form and shadow with the repeated drawing and green shape at the bottom. Working on the curves of the 'vessel' (2) and took out the heavy verical on the left. The 'vessel' is an ugly shape.
beginnings
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- Ashley Hanson
WED 31 MAY 2023
More like it! Breaking down marks, paint through paint, creating movement, drama and contrast. The space opens up, the shapes are free, the canvas unified at last. The reinforced 'double-drawing' at the bottom brings weight and depth (and movement), the heavy line twisting outwards.
Rhythms of yellows, taking the eye to the left-side, then diagonally across to the top right. Now the canvas-divide has a role in the painting: a formal-device creating spatial ambiguities - where is the line? - and its crispness and difference bringing the possibility of image.
DETAIL
(5)
After a series of recent disappointments, getting in the zone today. Working out the painting...slowly. (1) and (2) are just marks, looking for a visual metaphor for the contrast between the man-made and natural elements in coastal towns. Went vertical for a while, (3) had something, the colour is better but the marks too regimented - pattern.
Making new yellows yellow and redrawing in (4), but still too many marks, stopping the flow. I'm liking it as a landscape (5), more unexpected, the relationship between the purple and yellow marks along the bottom of especially exciting. Needs a fat horizontal, on the right of the upward curve, with purple punching through the gap.
(3) (4)
(2)
(1)
- Details
- Ashley Hanson
We recently welcomed six artists from around the country to our latest 'Freedom in Painting' course in 'Porthleven, held in the wonderful Old Lifeboat House. As you can see from the gallery above and from the comments below, all the artists pushed the boundaries of their practice, learning new skills, techniques and making new friendships too.
View from the studio
After setting up the studio on Friday, our first morning was spent in St. Ives getting a flavour of the art of Cornwall, both historical and contemporary, Our visit included Tate St. Ives, the Penwith & Crypt Galleries, where we saw of work of Paul Wadsworth and Francesca Owen and also an inspiring visit to the studio of contemporary coastal artist Heather McAlpine. On our return to the studio, we had a demonstation and group exercise, working from colour inspired by both the art and the landscape we'd seen in St. Ives.
Morning drawing session around the harbour
On Sunday morning, we had a drawing session around the harbour, sourcing ideas and inspiration for paintings, with exercises designed to see and respond to the landscape in a different way. The weather was glorious - Porthleven never fails to inspire!
in the studio
The objective now was to take those drawings, ideas, memories, feelings into painting. Over the next few days, there was a series of demonstrations, discussions, group exercises, with plenty of one-to-one tuition. As part of my teaching, I worked on a new painting - 'Porthleven 67'. The artists were encouraged to work intuitively, to use paint and colour freely, to ask questions of their work, to take risks, to make something new. There was an incredible creative atmosphere and work ethic in the studio as the artists revealed their Porthleven in the paintings. As always, on the Porthleven courses, on Wednesday afternoon we transformed the studio into a gallery for the final-day exhibition.
Exhibition
The exhibition was a great sucees with over 80 visitors. Hats off to the artists! They produced an amazing body of work, during the week, all strong and highly individual.
On a personal level, Denise and I enjoyed meeting and working with you and best wishes from us for the future and looking forward to seeing your next paintings of Porthleven. We are very proud of our painting courses in Cornwall and beyond - thank-you to the artists who chose to find their 'Freedom in Painting' with us (and for your help with 'Porthleven 67'!)
Celebratory dinner!
If you would like to find your 'Freedom in Painting' in Porthleven, we have places on on both our Autumn courses, 16 - 21 September & 30 Sept - 5 October. See COURSES
'Porthleven 67 (The In-Between)'
ARTISTS COMMENTS:
'The course was fantastic. I never had the confidence/ idea how to start with abstract painting and this course gave me that skill' ELLEN STUDER
'Unbelievable amount of support from Ashley. So very grateful for his time, conversations and solutions to visual problems. Its has been life changing. Thank-you form the bottom of my heart' MARGRIET VAN NIEUWBERG
'Ashley’s one on one time to discuss work and progress was invaluable. It was a lovely week and really re-ignited my desire to paint in new ways. I learnt a lot!' MARCELLA KATIC
'It broke boundaries and cultivated a desire to push further my practice. Explore more with oils and allow yourself to go big, be more expressive with use of materials' ANTONIA MILLER
'A lovely week with a very generous artist, great group of ladies, excellent resources, precious time. Thank-you. I think the small group allowed for greater time with Ashley on a one to one basis. Generosity with sharing ideas, materials and his extensive knowledge' SARAH CROOME
- Details
- Ashley Hanson
(3)
WED 24 MAY p.m.
Fickle! Comparing (1) and (2), I missed the energy of the earlier version and the subtle extension of the diagonal beyond the pier, prominent in the drawing. I went back in with an angled cut-line and a new blue into the bottom-right - the darker tones under the pier now less isolated - the exploding brushmarks bringing in more weight and vitality (3). The title provokes questions: hanging from what? From telegraph wires? From the headland? From the house on the hill? From the linear framework - from the curve coming in from the right?
Reality is disrupted; this painting is its' own world.
Freedom in painting - we're done.
WED 24 MAY a.m.
A session this morning: reworking the bottom blues which I thought were too sketchy in the earlier version (1) and leading the eye out of the painting. Now the blues and the violet streak are punching upwards through the gap (2). A couple of tweaks of colour, a sharpening of the diagonal above the pier and an extension of the red line on the right into orange. The painting feels more complete - full of life and movement with the red linear framework linking well with the slab of pier...
A few drawn lines become a painting...initially working from a drawing of Trebarwith Strand with a 'hanging' Gull Rock, I went for the dynamism and strength of design in this drawing of Port isaac, showing the white house on the hill with its distinctive windows and the pier beyond.
- Details
- Ashley Hanson
'A 2 day ZOOM workshop mixing/making/working with the beautiful and evocative colour BLUE...Why blue, which blue, how blue? The colour blue in painting is rich in symbolism, meaning, emotion: working with our own subject, over the 2 days in the workshop we’ll explore the qualities, differences, and uses of blue in our paintings'
A celebration of 'Blue' in our latest 2-day online painting-workshop...
As a way to explore the qualities and difference of the colour 'blue', in the workshop the 10 artists were asked to produce a 'blue' version of one of their own paintings, making studies in advance. The workshop began with a Powerpoint presentation of the history and uses of blue in painting with a selection of works including Titian, Monet, Picasso, Matisse, Helen Frankenthaler, Peter Lanyon & William Scott and several of my own blue paintings.
In the demonstration and group-exercise that followed, the objective was to find contrast when mixing a range of blues covering the canvas: finding difference using colour-temperature, tone, texture & transparency.
Demonstration & finished painting
A second demonstation followed, introducing the subject, in my case, The Ship Inn, Porthleven, which had appeared in a couple of my recent paintings, but painted out. The artists then began their own paintings, introducing their subject onto their blue canvases. The discipline for the day was to work exclusively with blues, working on contrast and special blues found in the colour-exercise. The afternoon was taken up with one-to-one tutorials, with the artists emailing images of their paintings in advance to discuss, and a further demonstration.
Jenny Kellington
Jane Crane
On Friday, the rules were relaxed with aceent colours now permitted! The day progressed with tutorials and further demonstrations, with many of the artists working on a second painting. With ZOOM, of course, the artists were able to listen in on tutorials and conversations about other paintings, which many found useful. In the afternoon, we had a couple of hours 'silent working-time', with the artists looking to advance or even resolve their paintings. The final versions were emailed to me to put together in a presentation for an invaluable Group Critique at the end of the day.
As you can see in the gallery, some fabulous 'moody' interpretations emerged, showing an extraordinary range of blues. Hats off to the artists!
Barry Kellington
ARTISTS COMMENTS:
'The format of the workshops is really effective. Ashley's illustrated talks are very helpful, based on lots of research and giving plenty of source material to shape ideas. Individual tutorials are a rare luxury in online workshops and help each artist with personal development.'
BERYL HAWKER
'I loved it and found the whole thing very inspiring. Best bits were my tutorials and watching Ashley work on his painting – it will encourage me to be braver.' SUE PRYOR
'We both enjoyed the workshop and found it very satisfying and really useful to carry some of the techniques over for future work. The content and balance was right.' JENNY & BARRY KELLINGTON