+3 Artist Ashton Howard
Artist Ashton Howard
Artist Ashton Howard
Artist Ashton Howard
Artist Ashton Howard
Artist Ashton Howard
Inspired by Nature’s Force and Ever-Changing Beauty
Pensacola artist Ashton Howard has always been drawn to the sea. Growing up on the Gulf Coast gave him the opportunity to be on and in the water, to study its ever-changing beauty, and to use its beauty, its force, and its continually changing face to inspire and inform his work. “I learned to love the water right here on the Gulf,” he says, “but I really found my love of surfing when I moved to California.” Howard went to see the Pacific Ocean and to work for a summer in a surfing camp. “I went for a three-month summer job, and it lasted for eight years,” he laughs. “I lived in a tent at San Elijo State Beach in Cardiff by the Sea, and I lived and breathed surfing. It was an experience that has influenced everything I’ve done since then.”
The pull of home and family brought Howard back to Pensacola, where he first learned to surf and will teach his son someday. “I live here – this is home – but I paint and travel and show my work all over the world,” he says. Howard is represented by Park West Gallery, out of Miami, and he travels to about one live show a month. “Most recently, I was in Asheville, and before that in Seattle.” In addition to traveling across the country, Howard also works with a number of cruise lines to do live art auctions aboard ship.
Howard never stops painting. “Right now, I am working on a painting of a beautiful waterfall,” he says. “I do waves and waterfalls, beaches and landscapes, but water is the constant theme throughout.” His work is always evocative – he can bring forth tranquility, power, or grandeur. He can make the viewer hear the crashing waves, smell the sharp salt air, and experience the magic of the ocean. He is inspired by his wife Emilie and son Hagan, and by the beauty of nature to continue to portray the waters of the earth in all their majesty.
Check Out Ashton’s Works – www.AshtonHoward.com
