Asher Oxborrow

Joshua
Oil on board
81.5 x 82cm
2020
£400

One Sixth Form College

I am a Suffolk based artist who is, at present, largely focused on contemporary portraiture. In the early stages of discovering my love for art, I was fascinated by how our modern world has such a beautiful range of unique portraiture, each created by artists that portray their models in different ways. Within each of their portraits, they capture different aspects of their subject and then express this using a variety of different techniques and mediums. Inspired by this, I became keen to pick up a paint brush and create some atmospheric paintings of my own, portraying the people around me from my own personal interpretation of them. ‘Joshua’ is a portrait I painted of my brother. He was the first person that I reached out to when I needed a suitable subject to create a large-scale oil painting with this in mind. I wanted to capture both his sculptural face, as well as his wonderfully unique, curly afro. My thought process behind this painting was heavily inspired by Colin Davidson. I aimed to create an accurate portrait using a range of loose and detailed strokes, with the aim of representing Joshua’s persona through my use and application of the oils. I also tried to create an atmospheric effect in this painting by focusing on the level of detail and depth in his eyes, contrasting this with the blurriness in the background. Additionally, I ‘stretched-out’ the colours in the portrait on some occasions, so that his hair merged into the background. My intention was to try to create an optical effect that would make the viewer feel physically drawn-in, closer to Joshua, much like I feel when I am with him. I feel that you can only usually experience someone’s aura if you engage with them at a personal level. Joshua’s hair gave me a perfect starting point for me to use some ‘raw-texture’ within the portrait. I applied some thick oil paint, but then went back through it with the other end of the paint brush to push away fine lines of paint, creating a contrasting effect. By working in this way, I was able to really enrich the painting, by creating much more depth to the hair. By juxtaposing the effect of painting his hair texturally with the way that I painted his face and glossiness in his eyes, I think that it creates a closer sense of ‘knowing’ in how Joshua’s wild hair is quite opposing to his easy-going, daydreamer-type personality.