Johanna Ashby trained at Bournville School of Art, Birmingham; the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford University and at Goldsmith’s College, University of London.
Ashby divides her time between her studios in London and on Sherkin Island off West Cork. She has exhibited widely with collections in the UK, Ireland, Europe, Canada and the USA.
She firmly places her work within the Romantic Landscape tradition, working on intense and prolonged series of particular places or areas. In her early career, these were Wales, the West Midlands and Cornwall, but for the past twenty years it has been the coast and landscape of West Cork and Kerry that have absorbed her.
The patterns and rhythms of the sea and landscape, from waves to rock formations, are central to her work, which all start with copious drawings. Johanna also engages in other and very specific projects, such as the ongoing series of works based on the ruins and old dry-stone walls on Sherkin, as well as exploring the inter-relationship between nature and industry along the Thames estuary near her UK home in London.
Johanna is also an art tutor and offers day and weekend workshops for adults.