July 16, 2026
Interview With The Artist
Ashlene Ross: Finding Order Within Emotion
Contemporary mixed media artist Ashlene Ross explores the tension between structure and spontaneity, creating expressive abstract paintings shaped by emotion, vulnerability and architectural thinking.
Some artists begin with a landscape, a figure or a particular colour. For Ashlene Ross, a painting begins with something less tangible: a feeling.
Working between structure and spontaneity, Ashlene creates contemporary gestural abstract paintings that explore the emotions often concealed beneath composed exteriors. Her work is layered, energetic and psychological, reflecting moments of tension, vulnerability and personal reflection.
Her architectural background gives her an instinctive understanding of framework, proportion and organised space. Yet once that structure has been established, she deliberately disrupts it through expressive marks, repeated motifs, experimental processes and intense colour.
The result is work that encourages the viewer to look beyond the surface and discover something personal within each layer.
01 — Artistic Language
Painting Emotion Rather Than Objects
Ashlene describes her artistic style as contemporary gestural abstraction with a bold underlying structure.
Painting first became an outlet for emotion during a period of transition. Over time, that practice evolved into something increasingly abstract and psychological, allowing her to explore feelings that cannot always be expressed directly through words.
Rather than illustrating a scene or telling a literal story, Ashlene seeks to capture the emotional landscape beneath an experience.
02 — Creative Process
Building Structure Before Breaking It
One painting that clearly demonstrates Ashlene's creative process is Understudy.
The work began with the feeling of trying to perform a role while experiencing something entirely different beneath the surface. Ashlene translated this tension into a process built around three distinct stages.
Structure
Bold dark blue stripes establish the composition. They represent frameworks, expectations and boundaries.
Disruption
Overlapping neon colours, repeated imagery and expressive movement begin to resist containment.
Tension
Blind-drawn skull motifs emerge in dripping washes and are reproduced using an ink-blotch transfer process.
The creative process mirrors the subject of the painting itself: an ordered exterior containing something far more complex and unsettled within.
03 — Developing the Composition
From Concept to Completion
Although Ashlene's paintings often feel immediate and spontaneous, the process behind them is carefully considered.
Each piece begins with a concept, followed by preparatory sketches for the different elements and layers of the composition.
The structural framework is established first, before Ashlene decides where gestural movement, repeated motifs and fragments of text should appear.
Once the work reaches a point of apparent completion, she steps away for several days before returning to assess contrast, balance and clarity.
04 — Sources of Inspiration
Inspiration Found in Moments of Tension
Ashlene does not necessarily search for picturesque subjects or perfectly resolved ideas.
Instead, her creativity is often sparked by moments of energy, uncertainty or emotional tension. It is only after stepping back from an experience and questioning how it made her feel that the beginnings of a painting start to emerge.
Her work does not document the event itself. It explores the emotional residue left behind.
05 — Architecture and Abstraction
Structure, Freedom and Architectural Thinking
Ashlene's architectural background continues to shape how she approaches the canvas. She is naturally drawn towards frameworks, geometry and structured space.
At the same time, there is a conflicting desire to escape those systems and move beyond their control. Order is not simply present as a visual device. It exists so that it can be challenged.
06 — Influences
Artists Who Changed Her Perspective
Tracey Emin
Tracey Emin changed Ashlene's understanding of what art could be, demonstrating that vulnerability can be a source of strength and that art must be truthful rather than simply beautiful.
Elisia Capitanio
The use of colour and strong graphic structure in Elisia Capitanio's work has influenced the continuing evolution of Ashlene's visual language.
Helen Saunders
Ashlene is fascinated by Helen Saunders and her ability to communicate energy and movement through geometric form.
07 — Experimentation
Curiosity, Printmaking and New Techniques
Curiosity sits at the centre of Ashlene's studio practice.
She is particularly interested in historical methods of reproducing images and is currently exploring ink-blotch transfer alongside printmaking techniques such as lino printing and monotype.
What attracts her is the balance between preparation and unpredictability. A technique may require careful groundwork, but the final result can still contain an element of surprise.
As a mixed media artist, Ashlene does not feel compelled to choose a single material. Each layer is treated individually according to what it needs to communicate.
08 — Interpretation
Creating Space for the Viewer
Ashlene welcomes the fact that viewers often interpret her paintings in completely different ways. Rather than directing people towards one fixed meaning, she hopes they respond emotionally before attempting to identify what a painting represents.
09 — Looking Ahead
New Experiences and Public Projects
Ashlene has recently returned from filming as a Wildcard artist for Sky Portrait Artist of the Year 2027, an experience that challenged her and encouraged her to work in new ways.
Her submission has also been selected by Dublin Canvas for its 2026 public art project in Leopardstown.
She is currently participating in the ArtnetDLR group exhibition at Walters Wine Bar in Dún Laoghaire, while another work has been selected for an upcoming group exhibition at Signal Arts Centre in Bray.
With a practice grounded in emotional honesty, formal structure and constant experimentation, Ashlene Ross continues to develop an artistic voice that is both thoughtful and visually compelling.
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