Marsh Walk *

Alicia Armstrong has lived, attended school, and worked in Asheville, NC, since 1995. Her passion for making art began in childhood while taking music and art classes after school, learning printmaking, collage, ink drawing, pastel, and painting. She continued taking classes throughout middle and high school, primarily focusing on painting. In college, she began working with oil paint and fell in love with the medium. She attended the University of South Carolina and later graduated from the University of North Carolina Asheville with a BFA in painting. Two pieces from her senior exhibition are in UNCA’s permanent collection. Throughout this time, Alicia worked as a wedding portrait photographer, impacting how she constructs her narrative work and communicates the play of light in her compositions.

Alicia works in both abstract and representational imagery. She revels in the transition between left brain vs. right brain painting. In all of her work, surface texture and color are dominant. Through a creative manipulation of materials and a rare sensitivity to color and tone, she makes paintings that are simultaneously abstract and boldly representational. At first glance, there may appear to be washes of color that conclude with expressive, tactile features that end in drippings or concentrations of color that become suggestive of local and distant landscapes, fields of flowers, or even the expanse of the sea.

Being immersed in nature is where Alicia draws inspiration for her work. “When I am outdoors, whether in the woods or on the beach, I feel like I breathe differently, I see differently, I feel expansive and small simultaneously," Alicia says. "My current work is about reconciling and breathing those feelings onto a two-dimensional surface, immersed in my natural environment while also being an observer.” She continues, “I want my paintings to be seen like you’re squinting your eyes, taking in the expanse, not the details. Just as in life, sometimes having an expansive vision and not getting bogged down by the overload of information and details helps to view the world without feeling overwhelmed.”