Category: Painting

© 2021 Dottie-May Aston.

This term I plan to produce paintings similar my favourite painting so far, Margaret. Although I will not paint copies of her, instead, I will use my idea and feeling of her. In a sense, Margaret is somewhat simplistic and yet she is rather surreal. Maybe that is the best way to describe my work, as a simplistic take on surrealism.

I don’t really know what name to pick for my art genre, but part of me does not want to be labelled. If I were, the possibility of me becoming bored would be highly probable. Additionally, feeling the pressure to maintain a certain genre would be too great. Instead of genres I would like my artwork to be named after myself. Like my body and mind my art will age and mature throughout my life. Rather than spending this time fighting the inevitable, by nurturing my abilities I plan to make the most of it. My artwork has developed in the sense that I have stopped looking at other artists work in a way to feed my own. Although, I have never looked at a painting and thought to do something similar, without me realising the inspiration would find a way into my work. Now I am content, with all that I paint is me, the inspiration for my paintings has been drawn from my vision.

“Secluded within their shell homes longing for freedom, stretching out they still cannot escape this attachment – expressing themselves through dance like positions.”

Shells, molluscs and natural oddities, these, combined with a delicate eye for the female form, are the essence of Dottie May Aston’s series Mollusca Femella. Born in the Forest of Dean and based in West Wales, May-Aston plays with expressive graceful forms melting into shells, a poignant comment on the current limits on everyday freedoms. Using thin layers of oil paint, she paints surreal images of imagination. -from my bio on the Lone Worlds website.

My artist statement for the Lone Worlds, group show I exhibited hosted a at The Stainable Studios, in Cardiff.

As we become separated from our expressions and the fundamental contact that we as humans crave, we become objects. My world within the medium of oil paintings is where the human form is one with the shell that protects but also burdens them. Secluded within their shell homes longing for freedom, stretching out they still cannot escape this attachment – expressing themselves through dance like positions. I have been working sporadically since the end of the first national lockdown on this painted series. During that time, I suffered from an artistic block that lasted several weeks. Uninspired by the confines of my flat I spent a great deal of time exploring my collection of various natural curiosities – which includes a variety of shells. Originally, I was born in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, I’m now based in the coastal town of Aberystwyth. Taken by the natural beauty of the area, and inspiration from natural curiosities that I’ve gathered on my walks along the coast, I created sculptures built upon the remains of various remains of creatures, most recently molluscs. Musing upon these objects, my mind often drifted into a surreal world of possibility. Once the fresh air of inspiration came back to me, I began to bring to life these fantasies. These paintings are different from what I have previously produced as the tonal range is more limited and higher key. It has taken a lot of courage to move away from the dark backgrounds of my previous works sparking a new stage in my work.