Victoria Ash Art

A semi-abstract mixed-media painter based in Rochdale, Victoria Ash paints highly detailed floral paintings using both collage and paint.

With a background in Fine Art from Leeds Metropolitan University, she has developed a unique way of painting vibrant, colourful paintings of flowers and plants.

Victoria frequently responds to open calls from galleries and last year was successful in exhibiting in The Fronteer Gallery in the centre of Sheffield and The Open Gallery in Halifax. She also exhibits locally and held solo exhibitions in 2023, 2024, and has a shared exhibition coming in 2025 at Littleborough Coach House.

In 2024, her work was selected by The Culture Co-op for an outdoor gallery exhibition in Heywood town centre as part of the Civic Hall renovation. This runs from February 2025 for a minimum of six months.

More recently, Victoria has also been invited to exhibit at The Eden Gallery in Newburgh. She has previously shown work here during 2023 with her most recent being March 2025 with much success.

Victoria’s work is entirely intuitive which helps the paintings to achieve their fresh and energetic appeal. This is very clear in her recent work where she is focussing on producing paintings to imitate how a flower bed would evolve naturally. In this way, she starts with no plan but feels her way through the painting. Her paintings are a colourful explosion! 
She uses pattern and forms extracted from nature to bring the painting together. These extracted marks may be seen as pollen, vines or pattern we see on the plants themselves. Not only do these add an additional layer of interest, but are a tool to gather and connect what could be a chaotic painting.

In addition, Victoria runs acrylic painting classes for beginners on both traditional canvas and on glass, at which she is very accomplished.

 A Word from the Artist

"Using colour as a device to capture the viewers’ attention is my first goal. My next aim is to keep their interest with clever composition, pattern and shape.

My paintings are a colourful explosion of flowers and plants. They are painted in a way to mimic the disorder of the flowerbed and how it evolves naturally. I paint entirely intuitively, feeling my way around the emerging piece, adding and removing as I go much as a gardener would do to maintain his garden. I want the painting to feel as though it’s grown like a plant or flower.
I start each painting with collage. This can be anything from paper to fabric which is then glued to the canvas, paper or wooden board, before I begin the painting process on top.
I sometimes paint very recognisable flowers and sometimes they may be more abstract, derived from the shapes I see in the plants themselves. I like that these two ways of depicting the natural scene, can not only exist together in one painting, but also work very successfully.
Finally, I use pattern and forms extracted from nature to bring the painting together. These extracted marks may be seen as pollen, vines or pattern we see on the plants themselves. Not only do these add an additional layer of interest, but are a tool to gather and connect what could be a chaotic painting.

I guess essentially, what I’m trying to achieve if I’m being honest are beautiful images you just want to have on your wall to admire. It’s as simple as that."