Frank Ashley oil painting Jockey Weighing In 1961 horse racing

Frank Nelson Ashley (American, 1920-2007)Jockey Weighing In #2 oil on board, signed and dated l.l., titled on verso board measures approximately: 12" W x 24" Hframe measures approximately: 19 1/4" W x 31 1/4" H Please note that shipping charges are inclusive of insurance, payment processing (if paying by check or cash, processing fee will be refunded) and carrier fees. If local pickup is selected and if applicable, payment processing fee will still be assessed and due. About Frank Nelson Ashley Frank Ashley grew up in St Paul Minnesota. He attended the University of Minnesota, served as a B-17 pilot in the Army Air Corps in England during WWII, and was awarded two Distinguished Flying Crosses, a Purple Heart and four Air Medals. He studied at the American Academy of Art in Chicago, the Minneapolis Art Institute, and the Art Student’s League in New York under Reginald Marsh. He was also Mr. Marsh’s assistant part of the time. Ashley won first prize at the American Veterans' Show in New York in 1953. Ashley was inspired by the Italian Renaissance's humanistic philosophy and symbolism. He found the interpretations of Gislebertus, Lautrec and Rodin to be very helpful. In 1957, Ashley produced a large portrait for Alfred Hitchcock's movie Vertigo. Ashley exhibited many times in New York and won several awards including the Grand Prize at the first U.S.A. exhibition in 1958. He has had solo shows in Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco (including the Legion of Honor, and was awarded the Alma Spreckels Award in 1964), Washington D.C., Aiken, South Carolina, Middleburg. VA, Carmel, and London. Since 1960, Ashley used the horse more and more frequently in his paintings and traveled throughout the U.S., England, France, Italy, and Ireland observing the flat racing, steeplechase, stadium jumping, hunting, and polo. In 1971, the California Jockey’s Club commissioned Ashley to paint scenes of the racing at Longchamps in Paris and Chantilly, France. From the middle 1970s to the early 1980s, Ashley lived in Middleburg, Virginia. There he painted local foxhunting, racing, and steeple chasing events. By the middle 1980s, Ashley moved to Carmel, California, where he was a member of the Carmel Art Association. In Carmel, he changed his focus to subjects of jazz musicians and popular culture. During the 1990s his subjects were often civil rights and environmental topics. Institutions holding his work include Syracuse (New York) University, the Oak Lawn Racetrack in Arkansas, the California Jockey Club, and San Francisco (California) State University. Ashley died December 16, 2007.