ART: "The Nature of the Beast" at PMAC

Description

Alicia Ethridge’s paintings in Nature of the Beast rove through a menagerie of animals inhabiting a range of landscapes from tranquil to lively. The work invites the viewer to consider these animals as watchers and observers. These paintings seek to bring the viewers closer to nature, and awaken the part of us that is nature itself. We all need to need to bear in mind that we are:

proud as a lion
clever as a fox
bold as a blue jay
wise as an owl
mysterious as a crow
free as horse
loyal as a wolf
resilient as a seal
devoted as a deer

Artist Bio

Alicia Sampson Ethridge (b. 1984, New Jersey) is an artist living in Coastal Maine and a founding member of Seven Artists Collective. She received her MSW in Expressive Arts from the University of Southern Maine (2012) and BA in Anthropology and Art History from Montclair State University (2007). Ethridge studied abstract painting, life drawing and experimental drawing at Maine College of Art (2014-2019). Ethridge was ordained as a Soul Friend and Art Monastic through Inner Life Creations (2024), a modern Sanctuary and Wisdom School.

Ethridge’s work has been exhibited regionally in galleries such as: the George Marshall Store Gallery (York, ME), the University of New England (Biddeford, ME), the Parsonage (Searsport, ME), the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts (Rochester, NH), 3S (Portsmouth, NH), the Maine Art Gallery (Wiscasset, ME), the Center for Maine Contemporary Art (Rockland, ME), 82Parris (Portland, ME), Katzman Contemporary (Dover, NH), Blue Door Gallery (York, Maine), Harlow Gallery (Hallowell, ME), and Zero Station (Portland, ME). 

Ethridge works primarily in oil and mixed media collage. Her practice is influenced by a personal spirituality practice, myth, dreams, nature and motherhood. Ethridge’s work fuses life and art in her decade long study of art monasticism. Through contemplative art techniques such as Lectio Divina, Pantoum, and the embodiment of dream characters, Ethridge has found that art and prayer have much in common - both are rooted in an intense encounter involving a surrender of willfulness, openness to inspiration and lead to a deep engagement with mystery.

Connect with Alicia on Instagram @alicia.ethridge or Facebook @Alicia_Ethridge.