Concrete Hermit paid a visit to the studio of Phil Ashcroft aka PhlAsh to discuss the inspiration and motivation behind his work and to mark the release of his new Yeti edition on our dedicated print site Hermit Editions.
A self-titled graphic artist, Ashcroft works with both print and paint, with a little help from technology, to produce large-scale, well-ordered paintings of ominous, industrial landscapes. We pulled apart some of PhlAsh’s most recent work, to try and find out what makes him tick.
Ashcroft’s studio is housed within the old Deptford Library just a stones throw away from Goldsmiths College in South London. The Renaissance architecture masks a hive of studios, all modest spaces with a familiar, well-used feel, one of which Ashcroft has made his creative hub for the last decade.
Phil Ashcroft works in series, with variations on recurring themes making up his ever-increasing body of work: ‘I treat each title or theme as a project in its own right, exploring something different within each piece.’
Always concise and considered, minute changes to single aspects of PhlAsh’s meticulously developed works whether it be colour, shape, or composition can seem like huge milestones in the development of a work.
Phil Ashcroft works in a very process heavy way. Designs in his sketchbooks are referenced to produce vector based drawings in the computer, allowing him to experiment with scale and colour with ease. The loose design is then translated up onto large-scale canvas where he paints, overpaints, tapes and sponges until he’s satisfied with the result.
Interestingly, the brush marks of some of his recent paintings seem to be breaking free of his rigid methods. Using more painterly gestures, Ashcroft is starting to employ a looser way of working, contained within a designated area of a composition.
There is often a struggle of power present within Ashcroft’s paintings, which could be loosely seen as the tension between knowledge and nature. The first is often an imposing threat from above, in the form of a sculptural, abstract mass of line and shape.
This form of impending doom directly references the science fiction influence from his youth, namely Star Wars and the imagery of District 9 yet at the same time harks back to the apocalyptic paintings of John Martin. This destructive notion captures the collective imagination of generations; highlighted by the popularity of ‘end of the world’ disaster films.
The sense of impending doom from above is juxtaposed with a barren but no less threatening landscape below. While the threats that Ashcroft deals with in his work are very real indeed; the ever present potential for either natural or man-made disaster. The inclusion of fantasy allows the paintings to exist in a world slightly removed from our reality.
Ashcroft chooses to depict nuclear power stations Hinkley C and Olkiluoto or the dormant volcano Mount Fuji.
Phil Ashcroft’s familiar Yeti character has been a very successful image for the artist and a theme he chooses to revisit through his screenprint series. Based on another of George Lucas’ creations, the Wampa creature, the artist actually worked from a plastic figurine he had as a boy. Often seen striding over industrial or natural landscapes, the Yeti imposes the same kind of impending doom, though concealing it through a reference to childhood fantasy gives it a lighter, more familiar presence.
Phil Ashcroft successfully combines references from Japanese woodblock prints, apocalyptic painting and science fiction with an organised graphic sensibility to create works that balance bold graphic impact with an immediacy and tension.
See more of Phil Ashcroft’s work here: http://www.philashcroft.com
Buy Phil Ashcroft’s screen prints here: www.hermiteditions.com
lovely to see these studio shots and hear about Phil’s process, great article.
I’m a big fan of Phil Ashcroft, the artist and his work. We were colleagues at Booth-Clibborn Editions, and I’ve featured him in lots of books that I’ve written and edited. Plus, I’m lucky enough to have a few of his prints and paintings on my walls. It’s great to see a “behind the scenes” view of an artist’s studio, and to hear more about his process. More please!