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 Collectors will have the chance to browse the Just Beyond collection in a beautiful and modern virtual exhibition space. By using a computer mouse or keyboard arrows, one can "walk" through the space and view the artwork on the walls.
I'll be reshooting my artwork this weekend (morning light has beens superb lately) and get my art into the virtual gallery in time for the Collectors-only pre-launch on September 4th. I'm considering one wing for the framed originals and one wing for giclée prints.
If you build an exhibition, send me the link as I never turn down a gallery visit. The new collection Just Beyond, featuring original landscape artworks from England, will be available to the public September 6th on ashley-stuart.com. The exhibition features 10 original watercolor or mixed media paintings and limited edition giclée prints that will be available until December 2020.
Art was my method of de-stressing during lockdown and I found opportunities to look for inspiration closer to home rather than around the world. “Just Beyond” is the result of my lockdown exploration, featuring UK landscapes nearby my home in Peterborough. I enjoy exploring expansive space viewed from first-person and guiding my viewers towards passageways to somewhere unknown. Each piece aims to be an avenue for nostalgia, while evoking curiosity about what might be just beyond the frame of view. Using layers of visceral brushstrokes to create a fluid base, I applied watercolor pencil or graphite overtop to create depth, definition, and texture. My work focuses on figurative landscapes that are often devoid of people. With this collection, I hope to encourage viewers to embrace the beauty of life right outside your doorstep. Viewings of original artwork may be arranged by appointment-only.
 I have been focused on the Just Beyond collection artwork and building my small business. Illustration has been set aside and, oh! how I miss it. When I woke up this morning I decided to squeeze in an hour of sketching. Those sketches turned into macrame plant holders, caught fish on the dock, a reading list, and a zen cup of tea. Using my favorite three colors, I worked as I always do: little to no sketching prior, laying down fields of color, and then giving form and shape with watercolor pencils. After doing some additional iterations, prints of the best will be put into the shop come September.
(Flow of consciousness entry) Exploring the qualities of the complex relationship between mother and child, in addition to the self (adult female and mother). My initial thoughts are to create representational shapes of the roles. How do they interact? How do they interpret each other? Maybe think magnets - cycle of repelling and drawing closer, repel, draw, repeat. What shape is a child? What shape is a female or a mother?
In response to a quick sketch exercise created, a friend mentioned 3-D glasses. This has stuck with me as I think through how this relationship would be best described or transcribed or created or... . The layering of two colors, the creation of another color where overlapped is quite representational of this relationship. Cyan and yellow, green? Magenta and yellow, orange? Is magenta associated with female too often? Would blue be too strong or infer different meaning? Could I use ink? Watercolor? Screen print? My brain is completely overflowing right now! More to come.
"Bourgeois uses the spider, both predator (a sinister threat) and protector (an industrious repairer), to symbolise the mother figure." |
 Spider, 1997, Washington DC Visit original post  Nearly under Maman, heart pounding. | I first learned of Louise Bourgeois in the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Gardens in Washington, DC. This was in our pre-kids era and we used to go for jazz and sangria on hot summer nights, dipping our toes in the pond. Wandering through the gardens, my intense fear of spiders kept me from one of the most fascinating interpretations of the "mother". It wasn't until I visited the Bilbao Guggenheim that I really felt a connection with these sculptures (still couldn't touch them though) and the artist Louise Bourgeois. Quietly exploring her exhibition space along, my husbands rocking our sleeping one year-old, I realized some of my negative feelings and experiences toward "Hollywood" motherhood were being validated in an unexpected and pleasing way. Even now, thinking back, I'm not sure I can put the experience into words; I just remember the experience being quiet and loud, and eerie and comforting, simultaneously. To say the very least, it was unforgettable. |
I'm pushing around thoughts regarding the complex relationship between mother and child. The first shape to come to mind was a circle as it is feminine and maternal in its roundness, and the overlap of the circle would create something of interest. What? I don't quite know yet. The first colors I imagined were black and white, simplistic, uninterrupted, stark. But the relationship isn't that so not sure what colors will work yet.
However, all that being said, I have been looking back in my archives and found this screen print from my days at university. Created with canary paper and conté crayon, the piece displays a struggle of two selves contained in one body. It seems internal struggles have always peaked my interest! I am thinking of taking this piece and using it as a baseline for my next fourth trimester series.
As always, would love your thoughts.
However, all that being said, I have been looking back in my archives and found this screen print from my days at university. Created with canary paper and conté crayon, the piece displays a struggle of two selves contained in one body. It seems internal struggles have always peaked my interest! I am thinking of taking this piece and using it as a baseline for my next fourth trimester series.
As always, would love your thoughts.
| This was a quick sketch from an exploration of the positives and negatives experienced during breastfeeding. Thought back to when I worked internationally with an infant attached to me most hours.... Whew, what a trip. I'm so pleased I was able to breastfeed my children, there were so many times I had wished I was doing something else, or would get upset that they were in between me and my work, or hoped the girls would ween themselves soon, like right then. These down times would bring on the mama guilt (so, so heavy). But looking back and talking with others I realize it was all part of the journey. |  |
The inspiration for this collection surfaced during an introspective journey following the death of George Floyd. The educational materials gratefully thrust into view regarding systemic racism made me feel empowered to help and support with my entire being. I was reading late into the night, watching documentaries, attached to the stream of social media posts all within a matter of days. This passion then became anger and I felt an intense mother's desire to take away the bad and replace with good, but could not. My need for instant gratification stunned me.
So I began to think, "Well, what can I change? Where do I start? What do I know? I know women. I know motherhood. I have felt the struggles. I'll start there." So by combining my fervor for the BIPOC community with that of women's struggles, the Beach Women collection was born.
So I began to think, "Well, what can I change? Where do I start? What do I know? I know women. I know motherhood. I have felt the struggles. I'll start there." So by combining my fervor for the BIPOC community with that of women's struggles, the Beach Women collection was born.
Upon further reflection of the initial collection, I realized that I did not include any variations of skin tones for the women. Amidst the chaos of life, I became wrapped up in using the knowledge of my self that I neglected to really embrace all women. So I am rectifying this and will have updates to the collection soon.
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Images are ©Ashley Stuart. All reproduction or use of images is prohibited without written consent. If you see an artwork that you would like to own, but it's not in the shop, get in touch and I'll try to make it happen!
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