Ashley Tappe
Ashley Tappe is a painter working primarily in oil, with an expanding interest in acrylic, streetwear, and commercial illustration. Her practice is driven by realism, close observation, and an ongoing effort to learn new methods without becoming limited by a single medium or style.
Tappe’s earliest exposure to art came through summer classes in South Philadelphia, where she worked with charcoal and still-life drawing. In high school, an art teacher, Ms. Neaves, introduced her to color theory and other foundations of visual practice. Although she does not have formal art training, these early experiences established an interest that she later returned to with greater focus.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Tappe began painting again after years away from it. The return gave her time to develop a more realistic style while also providing a necessary creative outlet during a period of isolation. Painting became both a technical pursuit and a way to express herself when everyday contact with other people was limited.
Her education has continued independently. Tappe studies other artists through documentaries, books, and observation, citing Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jon Moody, Pablo Picasso, Dawn Okoro, Norman Rockwell, and J. C. Leyendecker among the figures she returns to. Okoro’s use of a limited palette and Rockwell’s depictions of American life have been particularly important points of reference.
For Tappe, the absence of a conventional art-school path has created room for experimentation. She does not see one method as inherently correct. Instead, she learns through trying materials, building skills over time, and deciding what is useful for her own work. “The only thing that I need is my imagination,” she says.
Oil paint remains her main medium, but she also works with acrylic and has begun experimenting with painting on streetwear. She compares becoming fluent in multiple media to learning multiple languages. Rather than treating a new material as a departure from painting, she sees it as another way to extend the range of her practice.
Tappe does not organize her work around a fixed series or recurring subject at present. She follows the images and interests that are most immediate to her, allowing her personal life to influence the work as it develops. Plants, music, family, and everyday observation have all provided material.
The flowers in many of her paintings are connected to the plants her mother kept in the house where she grew up. Painting them is, in part, a way of imagining an environment of her own. More recently, jazz has become a source of inspiration, leading her to work on images of musicians, including a man playing trumpet.
Her process is flexible but shaped by routine. On a weekend day set aside for painting, Tappe may begin with exercise, coffee, and time spent studying the work of artists she admires. She sketches possible compositions, then paints until she reaches a natural stopping point. During the week, she reserves time after work for the studio, while also recognizing when it is better to pause and return with fresh attention.
Creative blocks are handled through distance rather than force. Tappe steps away from the canvas, spends time outside, listens to music, travels, or learns a new skill. When she returns to the work, those experiences often provide the needed direction. Reading, film, meditation, concerts, and nature all play a role in maintaining that balance.
A family portrait was among her most demanding projects. The painting took roughly two years to complete because she repeatedly started and stopped during periods of low motivation. Her aunt died before the work was finished, and painting her likeness became especially difficult. Completing the piece taught Tappe a practical lesson about persistence: however long a painting takes, it still needs to be carried through to a conclusion.
She measures success on similarly personal terms. Finishing pieces left unresolved in the studio, or being able to look at her work at home and feel proud of it, matters more to her than external definitions of achievement. The most fulfilling part of the practice is the discovery of new skills, materials, paint-mixing methods, or techniques that move her closer to the level of craft she wants to reach.
Tappe hopes to develop the technical skill associated with Rockwell and Leyendecker while pursuing commercial publication and eventual work in film and television. She is currently developing a jazz series, which she plans to release publicly in 2027.
Her larger goal is to create work that communicates affection for the craft of painting itself. She wants viewers to encounter the work as something made with care, respond to its visual appeal, and arrive at their own interpretation.
