ARTIST OF THE WEEK - SASHA BOWLES

Sasha Bowles

I have recently had a solo exhibition at The Queen Street
Gallery, Emsworth, Hampshire and am now exhibiting at The Beaux Arts, Bath
and Rowley Contemporary, Winchester. I was also shortlisted for The Celeste
Art Prize.

My paintings are ; A narration of everyday life, small unspoken moments. They are there to draw you in to a story and then you are invited to explore the possibilities of where the story might go. The journey they take depends on the story of the viewer and whether it touches something in their own lives.


1. Money spent on chocolate is never wasted because it brings such pleasure and can be shared with others.

2. Stella Vine is my favourite living artist because she is so of our time. She dares to confront all the critics and shows us rawness and vunerability whilst poking fun at us all.

3. Hogarth is my favourite historical artist because he was so good at showing life as satire(the Private Eye of his time). His capabilities as an artist are profound, he had immense skill as a craftsman, storyteller and humorist. His work still holds its own today.



4. Peter Blake had a major retrospective at The Tate Britain when I was 15 and it opened my eyes to the possibilities of what being an artist could mean. Before then I had only really been exposed to Renaissance artists and the Impressionists. Now I could see that art could be completely contemporary, personal and unreverential.

5.Most recently read Saturday by Ian McEwan. Talk about a good story teller, fast paced, emotional, inciteful into the human phychy and gripping from beginning to end.

6. The people who buy my work are those who have time to think and reflect on life.


7. On the walls surrounding my work space I stick up anything I think I might use as reference at some time in the future.At the moment there are newspaper articles on family disfunction, postcards of Philip Guston, Hogarth, Damien Hirst and too many to mention.I also have a doll's house filled with a multitude of sized dolls and accessories. There is a washing line hung with paper clothes and kitchen utensils. I also have many photos of interiors, armchairs, stairwells, kitchens and household objects. And lastly there are lines of poetry and snippets of conversations Pinned to the wall.

8. My studio is behind a funeral parlour so the neighbours are quiet, it used to be the coffin storeroom. I share with 3 other artists and 3 dogs. It is a very diverse studio with very different working methods employed by its occupants, from the meticulously clean ordered artist to the free spirited sloshing of paint artist. We are quite frank with one another on most subjects especially art so it is normally pretty lively. It is a great studio to work in even in winter when it is so cold I have to wear ski clothes, fingerless gloves and a nose hat.

9. I have a fantastic life style, a studio 15 mins walk from home, an independant teenager, a supportive partner and funny cocker spaniel who takes me out on muddy walks to clear my brain.

10. Art is one of the most important things in life as it is a reflection of the world around. It makes you think about and assess yourself and others. It can make you look at things and see them again for the first time. It is all around us, is impossible to capture and can lift the soul