Bekah Ash

Bekah Ash paints fictional characters with oil and acrylic on canvas, wood and collage papers.

Ash uses the characters in her paintings to tell stories of interactions, isolation, memories and relationships. These figures are drawn from imagination and don’t represent live models.

Originally focusing on portrait pieces, Ash uses oil on canvas to paint head and shoulder representations, relying on subtle expressions, color and composition to describe a scenario. These pieces are interpreted differently by different people due to the lack of information, and the mood of a piece can easily change with it’s setting and surroundings.

Additionally, Ash works on small collage pieces with thinned black oil paint to create quick studies of color and composition. These color studies serve not only as a different style to explore, but an excellent drawing exercise as well.

More recently, Ash began working on plywood with acrylic paint. The characters in these pieces are drawn in a more illustrative style and depict a definite setting, giving Ash more control over interpretation.

Bekah Ash lives in Iowa City with a dog and husband, and teaches art to elementary school kids. She graduated from the University of Iowa.


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