Artwork of the Week - 7th July 2015.

Kevin Ash - In the Ghetto.

Kevin Ash showed a talent for drawing from an early age and wanted to do something creative in his professional life so at the age of 16 he left school and started a sign-writing apprenticeship.  He learnt gold leafing and how to do pin-striping on hot rods, motorbikes and petrol tanks.

In his spare time Kevin also started travelling around Europe and when he finished his apprenticeship he continued to travel. He took his brushes with him and earned money by sign-writing yachts and working as a pavement artist in street art and graffiti.

Back in England, Kevin moved down to Cornwall for a few years and developed an interest in the surfing industry. He started coming up with images for surfboards, designing T-shirts, sign-writing vans and doing murals for surf shops and graphics for surf magazines.

Kevin's work was spotted by an agent, based in Newquay and he was asked to do some work for the Australian surf company Quicksilver when they first came to England in the early 1980s.

In Cornwall, Kevin also put on his first exhibition of portraits. "I drew surfers sitting on the beach. Landscapes and still life don't inspire me whatsoever they just leave me cold," he said.

Kevin Ash's talents were spotted by London-based rock merchandising company, Things, at the time the second biggest rock merchandising company in Britain. He designed T-shirts featuring the likes of Ozzy Osbourne and Bruce Springsteen and continued to design surf fashions and cartoon T-shirts for companies such as The Art Department and Creative Edge.

Kevin Ash also exhibited some of his portraits of musicians, including Jimi Hendrix and Ella Fitzgerald, in London's Covent Garden. Then he spent three-and-a-half years working as part of the creative team at the exhibition arena, Olympia, in London. He would put together exhibitions, paint murals for stands and create backdrops.

Fed up with commuting to London, Kevin left his job and moved back to his birth place of Northampton where he remains today.

Kevin Ash’s art captures the dreams and realities of custom motor vehicles, tattoos and rock & blues music culture using a variety of different media and styles, of this he says… “I love Motorcycles and Hotrods and have great friends within these cultures even though I don’t ride myself. I feel the People, the Music, Custom Cars, Motorcycles and Tattoos are all iconic symbols of freedom and rebellion and this is my main source of inspiration whether it is paintings, pencil drawings or fashion art & design.”

 

In the Ghetto is a Signed Limited Edition Print that brings together his interests and experience. The total edition size is just 95. Each picture takes between 3 and 8 weeks depending on requirements. The attention to detail is second to none.
 
The full collection of Signed Limited Edition Prints by Kevin Ash can be viewed at Union Art. Each piece has been reviewed and signed by the artist. Each print series from Union Art is available for immediate delivery and can be shipped worldwide.