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Julian
Richard Ashton
(b.1913)
Julian
Ashton was born in Sydney, the son of journalist and landscape painter
Julian Howard Ashton (1877-1964). The younger Ashton studied under
his grandfather, Julian Rossi Ashton, at the Sydney Art School (later
the Julian Ashton Art School) from 1929 to 1933. In 1935 he joined
the crew of the sailing ship the Joseph Conrad. While he travelled
he produced the work that formed the basis of his first exhibition.
Returning
to Sydney, Ashton worked as a freelance artist and continued to
exhibit frequently with the Society of Artists, the Australian Watercolour
Institute, and the Royal Art Society of New South Wales. In 1942,
during active service with the Australian Imperial Force in New
Guinea, he was appointed official war artist of the military history
section of the Australian War Memorial.
In
1948 he was appointed Art and Publicity officer for the NSW Department
of Tourist Activities and Immigration, from which he resigned in
1960 to take over the directorship of the Julian Ashton Art School
with his wife, Wendreda Elliot Smith. In 1977 the directorship of
the school passed to their eldest son.
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