Ashley Brayson

Ashley Brayson

In 1998 my wife and I thought it might be a good idea to start making decorative picture and mirror frames using various techniques. One of these involved the airbrush as a method of applying relatively simple stencilled images. I began to explore the airbrush and it's possibilities further and eventually left the frame side of things behind. My efforts at first were very crude to say the least but I persevered and settled initially on painting animals on canvas. As I progressd I moved onto such items as helmets and some motorcycles, even winning "Best Helmet" in a competition in an American airbrush magazine ( Airbrush Action ). I began to feel however that nearly all of the work I was producing lacked any kind of humour. The subject matter was always serious or 'dark' and it was at this point in time that I decided to return to canvas and start afresh with some of my own ideas. Although I am not a dog owner, I really like dogs as subjects for painting so these feature quite a bit in my work. They are also very easy to photograph and you don't have to visit a zoo! Many of my paintings feature a butterfly or bee to add an element of interaction rather than simply having a dog just sitting there. I also love painting portraits using the same techniques as my animal art. I now use the paintbrush in conjunction with the airbrush to hopefully bring a style of my own to the canvas. I take photographs as much as I can of the process and have set up a Youtube channel featuring slide shows of my work. Please see my home page for the link. I have no problem in showing people how I go about my work so please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Thanks for reading!