Ash Keating’s paintings evolve from an intensely physical process, where paint is sprayed at high velocity onto fine linen surfaces. Speed, choice, and gravity are critical elements in this process, and whilst Ash controls the materials, he is also happy to relinquish complete control and allow a delicate balance between intention and chance. It's a process reminiscent of American action painting, but bigger.

The resulting abstractions are grand and immersive scale, complex colour fields that are both abstract and representative at once. While there is no imagery as such, the scale and colour palette draw an innate association with the landscape. It is another key area of investigation that developed early on while flying over Victoria’s high country in a Cessna 150 with his grandmother as pilot. 

“When flying in a light aircraft at a low altitude, you have a very intimate interaction with the landscape. Those early experiences certainly had a profound effect on me and my work.” AK

The overall effect of the work is to make the texture not only come closer to that of nature but also to overcome the (over)importance of edges and borders; to make everything equal and allow the viewer's brain to be fully immersed in the painting and hence able to impose its own structure and resulting understanding on the work.