Artist Paula Ethridge is a professional oil painter who studied art at the University of Alabama. She also studied and painted internationally. Her work has been shown in art exhibitions and galleries such as Carnegie Visual Arts Center (Decatur, Alabama, Botanical Gardens (Huntsville, Alabama), Lowe Mill (Huntsville, Alabama), and the Alabama Center for the Arts (Decatur, Alabama), among others. She currently sells her work at Kathleen's Interiors in Decatur, AL.
Paula is a member of the Impressionist Society. She has attended art residencies abroad in Italy, France, and Germany. Most notably with Artists in Italy at Easels and Lens in Tuscany with Julian Hyzler, in France's Chateau Orquevaux under the guidance of Jennifer Taylor. Other prominent professional mentors include John Guernsey, Seth Haverkamp, and Casey Childs.
Paula specializes in oil painting, combining a unique mixture of realism and impressionism.
Paula pulls inspiration from a myriad of personal experiences as both participant and observer. She constantly drawing from the southern culture she was born into. She is truly a child of the South. Her art reflects the gentil and comfortable nature of the northern Alabama lifestyle in which she grew up and still resides. While Paula would never turn from her southern roots, but her European travels inspire and grow her craft, unveiling new dimensions. These experiences have given her the inspiration to capture the connection of her roots from an outsider's perspective.
While she is quite content in her personal studio, Paula frequently stretches her boundaries and regularly attends workshops and travels for art residencies to expand her interests and draws from those experiences to create unique pieces. Many of Paula's most desirable pieces have come from her leaving her studio and painting plein air in natural settings. Paula's work encompasses landscapes, still life, and portraits.