Ashley Jackson – An Artist’s Life
Chris Bond, Pen & Sword Books
Ashley Jackson is one of the better known contemporary British artists, and one of the few water-colourists that springs to mind amongst the general public. His fame has been achieved through two factors – hard work and artistic talent. And to some extent the two go hand in hand, as his talent has been honed through his lifelong devotion to his art.
Whilst he’s rubbed shoulders with celebrities from the worlds of sport, TV, and politics, and members of the royal family, he’s always been something of an outsider to the art establishment. Having been rebuffed by art societies from early on in his career he’s learnt the hard way that you can make a success as an artist despite not being the flavour of the month of the critics or the cognoscenti. And to that end, he’s had to learn not only his painting craft but also the skills of the publicist to ensure that he gets the attention his works merit.
His passion is for the rolling hills and moors of the Yorkshire Pennines, and although these are miles from the sea, the pictures that Ashley paints often have something of a seascape about them – the lines of the hills on the horizon resemble the curling breakers, perhaps, whilst the clouds bring to mind tumbling surf, the moors are stretches of open sea with the dry stone walls fusing into waves. And this perception of seascape is heightened by the artist’s use of colour: the greys and greens and blues are the ones you see in the sea too.
And yet Ashley manages to combine this maritime feel with an almost literal representation of the countryside around his hometown of Holmfirth, as there’s no mistaking that these paintings are of Pennine moorland. And so the viewer can, in a way, get double the value from looking at Ashley’s pictures as he or she switches interpretations between land and sea.
This dualistic approach to the way Ashley paints his pictures may perhaps reflect the enormous change in his early life as a result of the Japanese invasion of SE Asia during WW2. Born into a very middle class colonial family in Malaya, Ashley and his mother were evacuated first to India and then to Scotland. His father, meanwhile, had been captured and killed by the Japanese. Ashley’s mother eventually remarried and relocated to a small village near Barnsley where he had a working class upbringing (albeit with aspirations for a much better life). Ashley’s stepfather wasn’t kind to the boy and the young Ashley had to develop a tough outer skin to cope with what would nowadays be regarded as child abuse.
Chris Bond’s book tells Ashley’s story through the twists and turns of his early life, and doesn’t shrink from telling some of the more revealing home truths about the events and people that have coloured his life. Although Ashley came originally from a comparatively privileged background, he was able to make the adjustment to a pit village and to appreciate the miners and their families who inhabited it. This gave Ashley the ability to understand the hopes and worries of working class Yorkshire folk, and to judge people not on their social rank but on their qualities as individuals. For this reason he felt compelled to join the picket lines during the miner’s strike of 1984 alongside Arthur Scargill, yet later he came to consider the Conservative Prime Minister John Major as a friend and “the most sincere person in politics I’ve met”.
Ashley’s memories of Malaya were of a flat and unvarying landscape. When Ashley left Asia for Scotland he travelled by boat and the restless seas were a huge contrast with what he’d known till then. When Ashley settled in what was then the West Riding of Yorkshire and was introduced to the rolling moorscape, he felt a strong affinity which has only deepened over time. What Ashley’s artistic eye noticed was that the ever-changing patterns wrought by the time of day, the seasons and the clouds in the skies produced a dynamic effect – and meant that the way that any one piece of countryside is lit changes all the time, and thus produces an effect akin to the way that the sea is always changing, and it’s this that Ashley’s pictures of Yorkshire capture.
The book is lavishly illustrated with both stunning paintings and brilliant sketches by Ashley, as well as a plethora of photographs showing the key stages of his life – from his first job as a signwriter to a regular TV performer. It’s a very readable biography with plenty of amusing anecdotes which made me laugh loudly. Although I read it in just a few sittings, it’s the sort of book I’d like to return to and dip into from time to time and to this end, the book would have benefitted from an index. Other than that small quibble the book is a joy and does what it sets out to do – tell Ashley’s story, and demonstrate that he’s not just talented but a warm and likeable person.
Ashley has had an amazingly varied and interesting life. As he himself puts it, “What are the odds on someone with my background making a name for himself? They’re not great. So when I look back at everything it seems unbelievable and I still have to pinch myself sometimes. But I’ve had some great fun. I started out as a signwriter, I’ve taught prisoners how to paint, I’ve travelled to Europe, America and Asia and been invited to meet Prime Ministers, I mean what a life.”
One final thought on this excellent biography of Ashley Jackson is that it is very clear that he thinks the world of his wife, Anne, and his family – his two daughters, Heather and Claudia and his grandchildren. It may not be typical of artists to marry young and be a loving and faithful husband – but that won’t worry Ashley as he really doesn’t mind what people think. He just knows what’s right for him and he gets on with it.
You can buy Ashley Jackson – An Artist’s Life from the artist’s website, with the bonus of the book being signed by Ashley and with a sketch by the artist in the front cover.
And you can read more about Ashley Jackson here: