Ashlynn Browning

Topsy Turvy

2015

Ashlynn Browning is an American abstract painter whose work merges organic and geometric forms through an open-ended process of layering. She lives and works in Raleigh (North Carolina, USA). Browning earned a BA in Studio Art and English at the Meredith College of Raleigh (NC, USA) and, in 2002, a Master of Fine Art in Painting and Printmaking at the university of North Carolina at Greensboro (NC, USA). She has received many grants and awards for her work, notably a grant from the Joan Mitchell Foundation and New American Paintings publication. Browning has extensively exhibited in solo and group shows nationally, mostly on the US East coast. Browning used to work almost exclusively on paper (up until around 2006), using graphite, charcoal, oil pastel and then mixing those media with paint and collage. Over time, panels began to take over and the paper disappeared, whilst she started to focus almost exclusively on oil painting. Browning never makes initial plans or studies prior to starting an artwork. Intuition, instinct and experimentation are the main drivers of her work. She uses a classical Abstract Expressionist approach to painting: Making a mark, responding to that mark, etc. The only "calculated" part of her work is where she will let a layer sit for a while and just look at it over a period of days, thinking about her next move. That calculated choice may or may not remain in the final piece, but it is still an important part of the process. So in the end, the painting contains a cumulative effect of thoughtful decisions and purely felt acts.