Ashley Wood

I was introduced to the art of Ashley Wood about 5 years ago, and have been following him ever since. Originally famous for his comic book art, Wood has explored other areas of art, including video game concept art, and 3D collectible "toy" design. Since my discovery of his work, I have purchased three of his books: "Popbot 8", "The Journal of Ashley Wood", and "Zombies vs. Robots".

The first time I saw his work (in a comic book), I fell in love with his texture and limited color palette. There is just something about his mark making that makes me want to pick up a brush and try it out myself. Wood works in mixed media, integrating oil painting with digital manipulation. His images are dark, moody, and contain an apocalyptic feel. I enjoy how Wood integrates "hard" and "soft" subjects into his paintings, (ie. women [usually nude, and very explicit... I chose PG images for the blog] and robots). His play on soft and beautiful against cold and hard is intriguing to me.

Another thing about Wood's art that really speaks to me is his ability to stay so loose. In my own artwork, I have a natural tendency to make things as perfect as possible. I admire anyone who can open up, and allow the illustration to be more abstract. Wood does this amazingly well, and somehow achieves an incredible amount of detail while maintaining large and expressive brush strokes.

Wood's sense of proportion can, at times, be off (as seen in the second image above). However, I am not bothered by this at all, and actually enjoy the fact that Wood is "brave" enough to challenge our view of the world. I think that abstraction such as this, when done deliberately and with intention, can be a very powerful focal point to a piece.

Needless to say, I will continue to follow the works of Ashley Wood. I really enjoy his work, and always come away from them feeling inspired and wanting to work.