James Ashton was an artist and arts educator in South Australia

South Australia

South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...

.

Ashton was born on the Isle of Man

Isle of Man

The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...

, grew up in York

York

York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...

 and was educated at the Blue Coat School, London. After being apprenticed to a pharmacist, he studied art at the South Kensington School of Art, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 and at Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

. He married Mary Elizabeth Rawlings Turnbull on 27 December 1880.

Ashton emigrated to Adelaide

Adelaide

Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...

, arriving 11 January 1884 deciding to become a professional artist. He established the Norwood art school in 1886. He visited England in 1894 and was elected a member of the Royal Society of Arts

Royal Society of Arts

The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce is a British multi-disciplinary institution, based in London. The name Royal Society of Arts is frequently used for brevity...

. Returning to Adelaide in 1895 he founded the Academy of Arts and for over 30 years was the best known teacher of painting in South Australia. Among his pupils were Hans Heysen

Hans Heysen

Sir Hans Heysen, OBE was a well-known German Australian artist. He was particularly recognized for his watercolours of the Australian bush. He won the Wynne Prize for landscape painting a record nine times.-Biography:...

, Hayley Lever

Hayley Lever

Hayley Lever was an Australian-American painter, etcher, lecturer and art teacher.-Life and work:Richard Hayley Lever was born in Australia on 28 September 1876...

, Frank White

Frank White

Frank White, Jr. is a former Major League Baseball player, and coach for the Kansas City Royals and their AA affiliate, the Wichita Wranglers. He currently is a color commentator for Royals telecasts....

, Gustave Barnes

Gustave Barnes

Gustave Barnes was an Australian artist and modeller.Gustave Barnes was born in Islington, Middlesex, England, the eldest son of John William Barnes, a plasterer, and his wife Ann Eliza, née May. The family migrated to Adelaide when Gustave was a child; his father establishing Barnes & Neate, a...

, his son Will Ashton

Will Ashton

Sir John William "Will" Ashton OBE, ROI was a British-Australian artist and Director of the National Art Gallery of New South Wales from 1937 to 1945.-Early life:...

, and others who have since done distinguished work. He was president of the South Australian Society of Arts for four years and is represented by three pictures in the Adelaide art gallery, of which "The Moon Enchanted Sea" is the best known. Paintings by him are also in the Broken Hill

Broken Hill, New South Wales

-Geology:Broken Hill's massive orebody, which formed about 1,800 million years ago, has proved to be among the world's largest silver-lead-zinc mineral deposits. The orebody is shaped like a boomerang plunging into the earth at its ends and outcropping in the centre. The protruding tip of the...

, Bendigo

Bendigo, Victoria

Bendigo is a major regional city in the state of Victoria, Australia, located very close to the geographical centre of the state and approximately north west of the state capital Melbourne. It is the second largest inland city and fourth most populous city in the state. The estimated urban...

, and other galleries. He died at Adelaide on 2 August 1935 of intestinal obstruction due to hernia. He was survived by his wife and a son and a daughter.

The son, J. W. (Will) Ashton, became a well-known artist and was appointed director of the national gallery at Sydney in 1936.