CAL is honored to have artist Ashley Lathe as our program presenter for April 20. Ashley will introduce us to a new painting surface called Yupo paper. Yupo is becoming a popular surface for watercolor painting that adds new possibilities to a traditional medium. Ashley will demonstrate his process working with Yupo and discuss the characteristics of painting on plastic. Plastic? Yes, plastic. Yupo is a synthetic, made polypropylene, giving it outstanding durability and the strength of plastic film, combined with the special properties of natural paper. This “paper” has a super smooth and ultra bright white surface.

Ashley is primarily a watercolor artist though he also employs oils, printmaking and drawing skills to depict his preferred subject matter – “the overlooked in everyday life.” The influence of his graphic design and illustration background is most obvious in clean strong compositions and color.

Don’t miss this demonstration, which promises to be both fun and informative. Please join us! Visitors are welcome. This is a free event.

About the Artist

A native of North Carolina, Ashley Lathe began his art career via the commercial arts.  Graduating in 1992 from East Carolina University with a BA in Graphic Design and Illustration, Ashley worked for several years in web design and marketing. Following completion of post-baccalaureate classes at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, he taught art classes at the university level. In 2002, he made the final leap to full-time artist.

In 2009, Ashley was a selected by Center City Partners to produce and present a painting as the 2009 Center City Vision Award to Hugh McColl Jr. He was also selected as the local exhibiting artist in Greenlight, an exhibition of New York and Southeast artists in Bank of America Plaza curated by Joie Lassiter. His work was recently chosen for the cover of the new novel “West of Dodge”, a Kansas Memoir. He is a co-founder of Charlotte Artery, an artists’ co-operative, funded via a grant by the Arts and Science Council and the North Carolina Arts Council.  Ashley additionally serves as co-chair on the board of The Contemporaries, an arts-awareness organization affiliated with McColl Center for Visual Art.

Ashley’s work is represented in several corporate collections and publications including New American Paintings and Best of North Carolina Artists. He is a two-time McColl Center for Visual Art Affiliate Artist and an affiliate member of Artspace in Raleigh, NC. He has collaborated and directed community outreach projects with various organizations, including ArtsTeach through the Mint Museum of Art and Citizen Schools with McColl Center for Visual Art.

Currently his work focuses on the ability of watercolor to create and capture the subtle nature of change as landscape and metaphorical abstraction.