Biography

Ashar sees her work as a record of her feelings and emotions for a given place or event. She loves wide open spaces and big skies, the levels and moors being her inspiration. She says, "I do not want to depict them I want to express my feelings for them and create work that can be felt” Her work is atmospheric and invites you into an inner world reaching beyond the material into the realm of the psyche. Offering the viewer, a notion of peace and hope. She uses mark-making as a way of connecting the viewer and evoking a response. Her work is often described as emotional and moving. Ashar lives and works in Somerset and spends the winter months on the moors and levels wondering and sketching, loving the freedom, and imbibing the essence of the places she chooses to stop and sketch in. These sketches will form the basis for the work she will do in the coming year. Working in oils, ashar spends many hours mixing colour to achieve the palette that expresses her emotions for a given subject, be that a place or event. Since graduating with a BA (Hons) from Plymouth University, ashar is continually challenging her work and practice. Ashar says because our lives are made up of millions of tiny moments, both positive and negative. They appear and disappear; triggered by a word, a moment in time, a colour a, place a smile, building layer upon layer. This is how her paintings are built layering and glazing the paint influences the outcome, each layer building, a picture of memory and experience. Each work is a conversation between me and the materials, and then between the finished piece and the viewer.