Alice Pruitt was born and raised in the river parishes near New Orleans. She quickly developed a love of drawing and architecture. Her early childhood was spent near the beautiful plantations along the Mississippi River. In later years she became fascinated with the architecture of the French Quarter and the south in general, including a love for the rural architecture of old homes, barns and outbuildings.
She studied architecture at Tulane University then switched her major to Art Education at the University of Georgia after moving to Athens, Ga. After spending years teaching art in public and private schools, she decided to pursue my passion for drawing and began to work on commissioned house and pet portraits.
While the majority of her formal art training and experience was in drawing, the commissioned works led to experimenting with watercolor, acrylic and pastels. She has attended workshops with several artists in the United States and France, and she continues to study the work of other artists and to experiment with techniques.
Pruitt works from photos she has taken or by family members, only relying on outside sources for details that may be unclear. She spends a great deal of time studying my subjects which is evident in the detail shown in her paintings. As a change from the tedious work involved in painting details, she enjoys painting with other artists in a plein air group. This gives her the freedom to paint quickly and capture the essential elements of color and light.
She is a member of the Athens Art Association where she served as president for several years and also a member of the Athens Area Arts Council and the Oconee Cultural Arts Foundation. Her work can be found in books including “Under the Magnolias” and the “Athens Area Sketchbook.” Her work is also in the permanent collection at the University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education. She is one of four artists whose work was selected for the 2011 Art In The Air project which displayed a painting on a billboard in Athens. She also has numerous pet portraits that were used on the set of the 2017 movie "Father Figures.” Her painting "Cruickshank Lane" was featured on the cover of the 2018 Keys Culture magazine.