John Ashbourne

Wayside Chapel

February 2012 — Photography, 18 x 18 : $475.00

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Part time Art School in my teens was followed by more "sensible" education and occupation due to family needs. However some of the best practical art education - haunting Galleries from the Tate and the Pompidou to the Prado and the AGO - has never stopped. I work in sculptural 3 dimensions and photographic and mixed media 2 dimensions and have even been known to mix them together. I have shown quite widely in Southern Ontario and am especially honoured to have been included on more than one occasion in the annual juried Ontario Society of Artists show. One of my particular interests is the disappearance of traditional farming and the consequent changes in rural life. With migration to towns and rapid mechanisation of farming the pace of change in rural life is faster than ever - and still accelerating. I try, in my photography, to capture what remains in images to catch the eye and hold the attention for a moment or two - images of the deserted cottage, the old hedged field, the once solid and sometimes soaring barn. They disappear so suddenly that soon images may be all we have of a way of life which for long was normality for most people in Ontario. Romantic ? - probably. Sentimental ? - possibly. Artistic ? - potentially. Worthwhile ? - priceless !

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