Artist, Designer, Author

Short Bio

Ash Davies loves creating digital art & design with subtlety and elegance – with cutesy pastel palettes or colorful city skylines, booksy quotes, or designs a with nerdy, geeky quality. She also loves creating high-contrast paintings with a focus on light sources, reflections and shadows.

She holds two Masters degrees in the sciences – Master of Science in Mathematics (from Fiji) and Master of Philosophy in Physics (from New Zealand). In 2017, she dropped out of a PhD program to dedicate more time to art and writing fiction.

Contact: ash@ashdaviesart.com

Longer Version

In 2017, I dropped out of a PhD program in Astrophysics to dedicate more time to art, including painting, designing and writing fiction.

I will always love the sciences and you will see it reflected in my writing and art.

I have had many stumbles along the way and will continue to do so, but it is a joyful struggle fueled by purpose.

Questions and Answers

Which artists influence/ inspire you?

I love the paintings of many romantic realists. One of them being Vladmir Volegov — I aspire to one day achieve that level of romantic realism in my paintings.

What do you really struggle with?

In painting, I struggle with figurative painting – one day I will just have to get over it and get started incorporating more figures into my landscapes.

Photographing my artworks is also something I struggle with.

When did you start?

I started in 2017 after dreaming of it since I was a kid. As a kid I was more gifted at, inclined and encouraged towards the academic subjects. Or perhaps if I had picked up an art brush back then, I might have discovered the same for the artsy subjects. I showed some talent in the arts classes, too. But ultimately I followed the academic path towards gaining a Masters in Mathematics and a Masters in Physics. But academia stifled me, as much as I love the sciences. I continue loving and being passionate about the sciences but my love for the arts has caught up.

What media do you use and why?

I started with acrylics and then added oil painting to my process. I find they both have advantages and disadvantages for the execution of different ideas so I continue using both. But my favorite medium would be oil simply because it feels like spreading butter over the canvas!

I am also learning to do digital art such as cutesy illustrations, graphic designs for logos and book covers for projects in the pipeline by my husband and myself. I also illustrate an ongoing web comics. The learning continues.

What’s your process?

I look at multiple reference photos for one piece, selecting elements and features I like and think will aesthetically complement each other. “Art is selectivity” after all. Hence, I don’t like to copying the reference photo. My source/ reference photos are just that, references, guides, not material to copy pixel by pixel. So that the end result is always a combination of the real from the source material as a guide, improved upon by the eye, skill and imagination of the artist me.

For digital art, I use Adobe Photoshop photo manipulation techniques on stock photographs and other digital assets to combine elements into something unique. I also freehand draw, sketch from scratch as needed to create what I envision!

Are you a full-time artist? How do you make a living?

I have a day job which pays the bills. While I learn to make a living out of creating art full time. This hasn’t happened yet but I joyfully struggle on.

How can I support your work?

If you love my work and would like to see me continue creating, or creating more full time, you can support me by sharing my works with friends and family 🙂