Ashley Davenport

I am a local artist in Austin, TX that focuses on painting and exploring other mediums. I have been practicing since I could hold a crayon though I did not actively start pursuing art until 2014 when I received a commission that changed my view on fine arts and painting in particular. A woman saw me painting outside of my home one day and asked me if I could use some extra canvases, saying she lived down the street and had some she no longer needed. I said that I would be happy to take them off of her hands and she quickly fetched them and sat with me while I painting, chattering away. She talked about her late mother, saying she was an artist and talked highly of her work. After awhile she invited me to see the work hanging in their studio, laughing at how her mother tried to teach her to paint and she never quite caught on. I agreed and was taken aback by the beauty of the art that I saw. Paintings of every size covered every wall in the studio, all bursting with life of their own, but there was one that was empty hanging above the desk. It only had faint traces of pencil along the canvas, and a small palette of test colors on the back. She told me that it was her mothers last work in progress when she passed, that it was a self portrait featuring her three daughters. It was among the saddest things I had seen, and at the time I did not know why. This was my first step into my career as an artist, and it changed my life. I was commissioned to finish the painting, a long and laborious task that I was more than happy to help with. To see what an impact it had on her and her family was eye opening, and I couldn't stop. I quit my studies in medicine and took a year to explore my options and goals as an artist, eventually deciding to pursue interior design as a way to mesh my technical mindset and approach to the world with my creative ambitions, and continue to explore the world of fine art on the side.