J. Ashley Kirby :: Watercolor Artist :: 25 Zelma Drive, Greenville, SC 29617
e-mail: ashley@jashleykirby.com :: 864-294-1046
J. Ashley Kirby
The Watercolors of
My first oil painting was on a piece of cardboard. My father was a traveling salesman and left his paints where I could get my hands on them. Today, I still paint on paper. Most of my life I had quiet ambitions to be a full time artist but circumstances always seemed to keep art an avocation.
I studies art in Germany for over two years with Heinrich Kreutzfeldt, a well-known artist from Bad Kreutznach. I taught children's art classes, photography classes, and designed and built sets for a theater group at the Air Base in Sembach, Germany.
I moved to France for a year, then in Athens, Greece before moving to Teheran, Iran for another year. Life imitates life; I had become a "traveling salesman" with a territory stretching from Morocco to India. The six day Arab-Israeli War of 1967 forced my eventual return to the states to work in downtown Manhattan. Circumstances still kept fine art an avocation.
After a number of years as a designer and builder in Florida, I moved to Greenville, SC and again found some of my father's brushes in my hand. All of his art "stuff" was passed on to me.
I went to a watercolor class at Furman University, took workshops with several professionals including Carl Blair, Jeanette Dreskin and Mary White and my art found a new beginning.
Circumstances have changed. Art is now my full time profession. For the last 6 years, I have been teaching classes three days a week in my studios, occasional classes at Furman and participate in 16 to 18 juried Art Fairs throughout the Southeast every year.