Oil Painting

Reeva Ashton

Reeva Ashton is an emerging Australian artist living and working in the tree-lined hills of the Dandenong Ranges in Victoria.

Artist Profile

Reeva Ashton is an emerging Australian artist living and working in the tree-lined hills of the Dandenong Ranges in Victoria. With a passion for floral, botanical, and still life works, Reeva’s works explore the dynamic interplay between traditional realism and abstraction. Bright and bold colours are a reoccurring feature in her works, as are references to photography and digital art, both of which predominated her early years.

Reeva has won and been shortlisted for a number of art prizes over the past few years, including but not limited to winning the 2024/25 AGES Society Art Prize, receiving a highly commended prize in the 2024 Lethbridge 20000 Small Scale Art Award, and becoming a finalist in the 2023 Lethbridge 20000 Small Scale Art Award, 2023 Bluethumb Art Prize, and the 2021 Agendo Art Prize.

Reeva’s work is exhibited and collected by collectors Australia-wide, with her work having been featured in the Affordable Art Fair, through Gallery NWC. To date, Reeva has exhibited at this fair in Brisbane 2024, Sydney 2023, and has upcoming shows in both Sydney and Melbourne planned for 2025.

Her most recent body of work is inspired by the botanical nature of the land on which she lives, with some of her paintings capturing moments in time of flora she has grown in her garden, the same garden that is an vivid feature of her home-studio.

Artist Interview

What medium do you work with, and why have you chosen them?

I work within oil painting as it was always a medium I was drawn to from the beginning. Whilst I occasionally will also work in acrylic, or at times create an underpainting with acrylic, ultimately I always come back to oils. The slow drying times and the ability to create a painting over a series of layers is something that complements my style of practice.

How does your artwork get from initial concept to exhibition stage?

I work in a number of different ways, but often the work starts with taking photographs, sometimes of flowers I have grown, and other times of locally-sourced florals. I then take these photos into digital editing software where I layer images, creating abstracted backgrounds and playing with colour until I ultimately have an image I'm happy with. This then becomes my reference for the proceeding work. It is this process, across a number of paintings, that encompass the body of work that sees me through to the exhibition stage.

Can you tell us a little more about your creative working environment/studio?

I have a home studio in the hills that I absolutely adore. With large windows that expand across the entire space, my easel is set atop a background of giant mountain ash and gum trees that fill my backyard and the area to which I live. I often find myself lost in this view when I rest my mind and body between brush strokes.