|
Bio 2025
Elizabeth Alley is a painter and sketchbook artist from Memphis, TN; she received a BFA from University of Memphis in 1998. She has shown her work locally at Crosstown Arts, Dixon Gallery and Gardens, and Beverly and Sam Ross Gallery at Christian Brothers University. Regionally, her work has been exhibited at the Nashville International Airport, Wavelength Gallery in Chattanooga, and Pittsburg State University Gallery in Pittsburg, KS. In 2025 she will participate in the Arctic Circle residency and continue the practice of making work about landscapes experienced through actions. Artist Statement 2024
I make oil paintings about landscapes. Sketching on location is crucial to my painting practice: I go out in the world and draw what I see. The paintings I create in my studio after sketching a place incorporate the loose lines, abstracted shapes and graphic elements of the sketches. I paint on paper, so my paintings are usually 30x22 or smaller. I experience every place I paint through different actions: walking, sleeping (camping), driving, or sometimes navigating by boat or kayak. When I paint, I consider how well I can get to know a place through these actions, how it feels, the energy of the place, the sounds, sights, smells, solidity or airiness, wind, rain, cold and heat. Because of the work I do as a sketcher, I value getting to know a place by just passing through it. The sketches I make contribute to getting to know the shapes and lines that go with the place. I connect with a place, but briefly, so that the resulting painting comes out abstracted or flattened or with unlikely colors or patterns, but the feeling of the place is there. Pausing in a space to draw it and then extending the exploration by painting it in the studio deepens the connection to the place and helps me investigate the way we interact with and experience natural surroundings. 
| ||||