Ashton Howard

The drama of one of Howard’s light-filled paintings has the impact of a symphony rising to its crescendo. In epic works such as Pure Energy, the artist summons the brightest and hottest of reds to mingle with oceanic blues and the white spray off the waves in one powerful image.

The graphic skill of Howard’s realism was acquired during a brief but important stint at the prestigious Savannah College of Art and Design, where he took the natural talent developed during his childhood in Florida. As a painter selling art from fair booths in Laguna Beach, he supported himself by giving surfing lessons and custom painting boards. Whether in Florida, where he lives today with his family or in California, Howard has consistently stayed by the ocean, a motif in many of his works. He has made the transition recently from the easel to the wall. His murals can be seen at the Sacred Heart Women and Children’s Hospital in Pensacola, at Pepperdine University in Malibu and several locations in Houston.

“Sundown Sails”

Ashton Howard: A Guide to Collecting

The booming effects of sunlight and surf are so dramatic that they invite us to wonder just how the artist achieved such a flow of color and paint. Like the Abstract Expressionists, who let the paint flow and fall according to gravity and sometimes chance, Howard allows the materials to perform. He starts with acrylic paints and resin, mixing several colors with special acrylic additives, then pouring these simultaneously on the canvas. Before they can dry, he then hits them with palette knives, brushes and even compressed air, manipulating them into the gestural forms he is looking for, retaining the abstract interaction of colors that surround the realism he adds with meticulous detail, drawing on his background in illustration. In this way, chance and choice play their roles in the final work.

“Sunlit Rain”

Howard is at heart a realist with a penchant for abstraction: “I study the way sunlight reflects and exposes itself through the waves, the abundant sea life of our oceans, and the way the entire sky seems to open up when you are at the water’s edge. My love of art seems to have developed through trial and error over the years and continues to be focused on painting the ocean and landscapes that surround me. Through painting and my experiences in nature, the inspirations are endless and so are the hours that are involved each day; it is an obsession and one that I love very much. On one hand I love the pure creation and imagination it takes to turn a blank canvas into a beautiful landscape, and on the other I yearn for being outdoors or in the water with my camera capturing incredible moments that happen in time.”

“Winter’s Warmth”