We are featured in Dazed magazine as one of their music videos of the month. It has been a common misunderstanding by the press that it's James performing in the video, bloody cheek!
WIFE - Heart is a Far Light
Fiona and I collaborated on this music video for James Kelly (aka WIFE). Fiona Directed and I performed.
Priming then Sanding then Priming and then Sanding again
I have started three new paintings. It took four whole days of priming and sanding to get them ready to paint. I hope it has been worth it.
National Portrait Gallery Tour
I have been asked by the National Portrait Gallery to lead a tour of the BP Portrait Prize Exhibition on July 31st.
Casting Fiona
I took my first cast for the Death Mask project today. Now I will pass this plaster cast on to Rachel Freire to cast it in leather.
Show and Tell with Stephen Ellis of Revere
Stephen popped by today to check out his likeness. I stole the image from a photo shoot of his band Revere that was shot by my lovely wife Fiona Garden.
Death Mask Project
I have started a new collaboration with the very talented Rachel Freire. She is moulding body parts out of leather for me to paint on. It seemed the natural evolution for my Study is Final project. Here is what it looks like when you project my face onto a mannequin mask.
Wife - Heart is a Far Light
Fi and I have collaborated on some tour visuals for the very talented musician Wife on Triangle Records. He has used our footage to create a video for his song Heart is a Far Light.
wife___'s video on Instagram
Ben Ashton art install at Hoi Polloi @ Ace Hotel Shoreditch
A wonderful evening hosted by the fabulous Princess Julia. The work looked surprisingly at home on the walls of Hoi Polloi.
Much love and thanks to David Waddington and his team for being so accommodating.
Princess Julia for the BP Portrait Award 2014
'Princess Julia in Meadham Kirchhoff', by Ben Ashton, selected for the National Portrait Gallery BP Portrait Award 2014. The painting is life sized, oil paint on raw linen.
The painting will be on view as of June 26th, 2014 at the National Portrait Gallery in London.
New Studio Hang
The Study is Final series is coming together now. I am preparing a body of work for an interview at the National Portrait Gallery, very nerve racking.
The Painting of Crown
I felt like I needed to celebrate the changing of Fiona's hair colour. It's very important to have a muse update every so often.
Barney
As a big thank you to Julia for being involved in the portrait I decided to paint her a gift.
Princess Julia
I am trying to finish this portrait of Julia for the BP Portrait Award. I only have just over a month to produce a life sized, full length portrait of her. Here are some shots of the paintings progress.
Fiona in Ink
I have been enjoying working in pen recently. My paintings take so long to execute so I find it incredibly satisfying finishing a drawing in a day.
The Study is Final
I have now started work on my Study is Final series. I am working on canvas, linen and paper simultaneously.
Arms
Taking photos for my new series of work. These new paintings will focus around the importance of the study, elevating the humble study to the relevance of a final painting.
Princess Julia plate at ICA Exhibition
Princess Julia was kind enough to include one of my plate portraits, that I did of her, in an off site exhibition by the ICA.
Vuvuvultures - Thought are a Plague + Deaf Epic
Just completed some more art work for the Vuvuvultures for one of their double A sides. This was also created using my laser technique.
Vuvuvultures - Push/Pull
This is another collaborative project that Fiona and I have produced. We made an album cover entitled Push/Pull for the Vuvuvultures using my laser mapping technique. This is a composite image made up of hundreds of individual photos. Each red line in this image represents a single photo.
