'Artists can occupy a place in society that most others can’t. We are on the outside looking in, providing questions with no answers but leaving food for the soul.'
Ben Ashton works from a home studio in London, UK. He specialises in hyper-realist figurative pieces, with surrealist elements, often using himself and his family as subjects. Ben's artworks evolve from thoughtful and emotive responses, a strong foundation, humour and an understanding of character. He is very generous in explaining elements of his practice via his social media.
Where is your current studio? What would be your dream studio?
I live and work in my studio in North London with my wife and child. Although it’s incredibly small I have everything I need here, we have plenty of natural light coming through our skylights and it is completely soundproof as it was a recording studio before we moved in.
My ideal space would probably be by the sea in a converted warehouse. The only thing we lack in London is space and I long to produce larger paintings and get back into producing my optical sculptures once again.
Studio life can lead to isolation, how do you address this/ keep a balance?
Life as an artist does lead to a certain amount of isolation, on the whole I don’t mind being on my own and I have my family keeping me company who I love dearly. It’s important for me to go out to exercise every day with my son, we go to the woods and hang out in nature which does more for my soul than anything else.
What is your favourite/ least favourite part of the creative process?
My favourite part of the painting process has always been the beginning, watching your concept appear for the first time on a blank surface can be thrilling. When the image first appears there is a sense of anticipation, excitement regarding the possibilities that might be realised in the piece.
My least favourite part comes at the end of the painting as you never quite manage to capture your original vision. The final painting will always feel like an anticlimax initially and it usually takes me a couple of years to get enough distance from a finished work to be able to judge whether it’s successful or not.
Describe an obstacle you have faced and how did you overcome it.
I suppose the greatest obstacle that I faced was when I chose to leave the gallery that represented me back in 2014. Although it was necessary for me to do so it was a very scary time in my life. I had always been selling through galleries since leaving college and I found that being independent was like I was starting my career from scratch.
Needless to say I am very glad that I took that leap into the unknown. It took me many years to find my direction again but now I feel completely in control of my own destiny. I show with lots of different galleries now internationally and my work is seen by a more diverse cross section of society. You can become complacent when signed exclusively to one gallery believing they are doing lots of work on your behalf, being an independent artist forces you to take control.
Nature versus nurture: do you believe you have inherited abilities from creative parents, do you have creative siblings? Can you identify environmental factors or influences which led to your choices or directions? My father is an abstract painter and my mum was an art teacher so I was always around art growing up. Having parents in this line of work made it seem possible to pursue art as a career even though you were also aware of the multitude of pitfalls in choosing that direction. I remember my father trying to dissuade me from being an artist as 'there was no money in it' which is largely true.
I think growing up around art has definitely had an effect on me, museums are a place of refuge and contemplation for me as I had spent so much time in them when I was young.
If you could time travel, what advice would you give the younger you, regarding pursuing your artmaking? I would tell my younger self that whatever I was going through at that moment will not last forever, things will get better.That is something that has become apparent over the years, so much time has been lost to worrying about the future and feeling powerless to do anything to change it.
I would also tell myself to put my work out on online platforms and to find like minded individuals to share work with. This is a way to combat those feelings of helplessness, to open up new avenues for your work and to allow constructive dialogue with the right people.
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