Entering Ashley's twilight zone

His deftness of touch is familiar to all those who have watched the numerous TV programmes in which he has passed on painting tips.

Famous and popular, he is also resented in some quarters, usually by other painters who say that he paints to a formula rather than from the heart.

Twilight of the Twentieth Century: Ashley Jackson's Yorkshire, is the title of his latest exhibition at Bradford's Cartwright Hall. The 44 pictures on display surely go a long way to refuting the notion that he is a kind of painter by numbers.

Ashley Jackson may paint with facility, but these pictures with their disappearing roads and wild skies also show that he paints with feeling, a feeling for the timelessness of unpeopled hills and dales.

"While others have been rushing, unconscious of their environment and surroundings, I as an artist have been able to paint landscapes and seascapes of the earth, and more particularly Yorkshire, the county I fondly call 'my mistress, my other woman'," he says in a programme note.

Florence Muriel Lloyd from Ilkley, currently studying an MA in art at Leeds Metropolitan University (she got her BA in Bradford), happened to be at Cartwright Hall when we arrived to do this piece.

Not knowing that she was a painter herself I asked Florence for an opinion of Ashley Jackson's pictures.

"I'm an oil painter, but I know how difficult it is to do water-colours. I have spent many years trying to produce the type of things that he does. It's beyond me!

"His ability to produce an unfocused image in the background makes the image almost mystical. He feels what he paints!" she declared.

This enjoyable exhibition runs until October 17, from 10am to 5pm Tuesday to Saturday, and 1pm to 5pm on Sundays.

Last night at Cartwright Hall held Ashley talked about his life, passed on tips, and generally talked about being an artist.

Jim Greenhalf

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.