Passing Storms

Celebrating 75 years with a personal exhibition

September 1st 2015 marked the beginning of Ashley's 75th birthday celebrations with an exclusive exhibition 'Passing Storms and Spiritual Skies' a personally chosen collection of paintings that capture the tempestuous long term relationship that he has had with his mistress - The Yorkshire Moors.The exhibition had all floors of the gallery open to the general public.

It has been 60 years this year that Yorkshire watercolour artist Ashley Jackson joined the art profession, throughout this time it has been his unwillingness to deviate from his love affair with Yorkshire that has allowed him to intimately capture her every emotion. Without words he views her raw contours through the eyes of a man that has been absorbed in the passion of a young man in a hurry to investigate, to touch to taste, to utilise every human sense available, to today; older, wiser, more knowledgeable but no less in love with his mistress, the Yorkshire Landscape.

He has not only wished to capture the moorland with his own eyes but also been vocally passionate in attempting to lead others to visit Yorkshire and the Dales to see in person all that Mother Nature has to offer. Jackson states, "You cannot smell the wet heather, hear the skylark as she circles to protect her eggs or feel the atmosphere change as rain approaches from a screen, all of these can only be felt by using our senses out in the great Cathedral of the open air"

 

A further birthday celebration was unveiled on the 22nd October at the University of Huddersfield when previously unseen film footage of Ashley as a 25 year old man starting out in the art profession from his first studio at Dodworth. The film alongside the documentary 'My own flesh and Blood' was gifted to the University Archive at Heritage Keys, where it has been digitalised and will be available for future generations to view.

You can view the 10 minute film by John Hoyland, Barnsley Cine Club below: