Ashley Partridge Rafferty
Ashley Partridge Rafferty is a contemporary American artist whose practice centers on graphite drawing and watercolor. She creates large-scale paintings on scrolls of watercolor paper alongside smaller works featuring precarious arrangements of objects, organic forms, and living creatures. Through intuitive mark-making and automatic drawing, Rafferty develops unexpected juxtapositions that draw upon Surrealism while reflecting her distinctive experience of internal and external reality.
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Born in South Carolina, Rafferty lives and works in Pensacola, Florida. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the University of West Florida before shifting from the sciences to pursue a career in art. She later received her Master of Fine Arts in Painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Her background in biology continues to inform her attention to natural structures, interdependence, and the relationships among seemingly disparate forms.
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Rafferty’s creative process is guided by neurodivergent perception and an embodied approach to drawing. Rather than beginning with a predetermined narrative, she allows imagery to develop through repetition, association, physical movement, and close attention to the evolving surface. Graphite lines and transparent layers of watercolor accumulate into dreamlike environments in which objects, roots, figures, and organic forms appear balanced, connected, or in states of transformation.
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Her long scroll paintings extend drawing into a physical and spatial experience. Hung freely like tapestries, they invite the viewer to encounter the work gradually rather than absorb it as a single, fixed image. Their unfolding compositions suggest nonlinear forms of storytelling shaped by intuition, discovery, and the movement of the body across the paper.
Rafferty has exhibited her work for more than twenty-five years. She frequently exhibits at Artel Gallery and the Pensacola Museum of Art and has participated in regional, national, and international juried exhibitions. Her work has received numerous awards and is held in private collections throughout the United States.
RESUME
Born in Sumter, South Carolina, 1970
Lives and works in Pensacola, Florida
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EDUCATION
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1994 Bachelors of Science (Cellular and Molecular Biology), University of West Florida, Pensacola, Florida
1996-1998 Bachelors of Fine Art studies (Painting) University of West Florida, Pensacola, Florida
2026 Masters of Fine Art (Painting), Savannah College of Art & Design, Savannah, Georgia
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SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
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2026
NAW Society International Online Exhibition, North American Watercolor Society
PMA 72nd Annual Juried Members Show, Pensacola Museum of Art, Pensacola, FL
Black and White, Artel Gallery, Pensacola, FL
Members' Show, Artel Gallery, Pensacola, FL
Drawing from Within: Intuitive Drawing and the Cartography of Inner Experience, MFA Thesis Exhibition, Artel Gallery, Pensacola, FL
Choices You Make, Artel Gallery, Pensacola, FL
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2025
Gallery Night Pensacola Featured Artist, Downtown Pensacola, Pensacola, FL
It's Not What It Looks Like, Artel Gallery, Pensacola, FL
PMA 71st Annual Juried Members Show, Pensacola Museum of Art, Pensacola, FL
Gulf Breeze Celebrates the Arts Juried Show, Gulf Breeze, FL
Members Show, Artel Gallery, Pensacola, FL
SCAD Atlanta Fine Arts Showcase, Savannah College of Art & Design, Atlanta, GA
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2024
Anything Goes Juried Exhibition, Artel Gallery, Pensacola, FL
PMA 70th Annual Juried Members Show, Pensacola, FL
Paper Juried Exhibition, Artel Gallery, Pensacola, FL
Members Show, Artel Gallery, Pensacola, FL
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2023
60th Annual Membership Juried Exhibition, Southwestern Watercolor Society, Dallas, TX
50 or Older Juried Exhibition, Las Laguna Art Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA
Fabulous Forgeries Juried Exhibition, Artel Gallery, Pensacola, FL
Playlist Juried Exhibition, Artel Gallery, Pensacola, FL
46th Southern Watercolor Society Juried Exhibition, Panama City Center for the Arts, Panama City, FL
Northwest Watercolor Society 2023 Annual Waterworks Juried Membership Exhibition, Northwest Watercolor Society, Online Exhibition
Members Show, Artel Gallery, Pensacola, FL
Georgia Watercolor Society 2023 National Juried Exhibition, Blue Ridge, GA
Society of Watercolor Artists 2023 International Juried Exhibition, Fort Worth Central Library, Fort Worth, TX
Art on Paper Juried Exhibition, Maryland Federation of Art, Annapolis, MD
Seven Deadly Sins Juried Exhibition, Artel Gallery, Pensacola, FL
PMA 69th Annual Juried Members Show, Pensacola Museum of Art, Pensacola, FL
Word Juried Exhibition, Artel Gallery, Pensacola, FL
Magnificent Monochrome 8th Annual National Juried Photography Show, SAGE Gallery, Sheridan, WY
Gulf Breeze Celebrates the Arts Juried Show, Gulf Breeze, FL
2022
Members Show, Artel Gallery, Pensacola, FL
Cinco Banderas Juried Competition, Artel Gallery, Pensacola, FL
ArtPrize International Competition, Grand Rapids African American Museum of Art, Grand Rapids, MI
PMA 68th Annual Juried Members Show, Pensacola Museum of Art., Pensacola, FL
2021
Art at the Center, Gulf Breeze Community Center, Gulf Breeze, FL
2020
Members Show, Artel Gallery, Pensacola, FL
2018
ArtPrize International Competition, Hilton, Grand Rapids, MI
Cinco Banderas Juried Competition, Artel Gallery, Pensacola, FL
2003
Progress Energy Juried Florida Invitational, MainStreet Galleries, Florida
Gallery 76 National Juried Exhibition, Gallery 76, Washington
75th Annual Juried Exhibition, Art Association of Harrisburg, Harrisburg, PA
2002
Great Gulfcoast Arts Festival, Pensacola, Fl., 2002
An American Experience Juried Exhibition, Milton Rhodes Galleries, Winston-Salem, N.C.
Enter the Dragon Juried Exhibition, Breckenridge Fine Arts Center, Breckenridge, TX
Northern National Juried Art Competition, Nicolet College Art Gallery, Rhinelander, WI
Maine Maritime Juried International Flatworks, Reed Gallery University of Maine, Presque Isle, ME
2000
Great Gulfcoast Arts Festival, Seville Square, Pensacola, FL
1997
100 Mile Radius Juried Art Show, Pensacola Museum of Art, Pensacola, FL
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SOLO EXHIBITIONS
Drawing from Within: Intuitive Drawing and the Cartography of Inner Experience, MFA Thesis Exhibition, Artel Gallery, Pensacola, FL
​The Devil is in the Details, Artel Gallery, Pensacola, Fl., 2024
Life’s Picnic, Pensacola Museum of Art, Pensacola, Fl., 2022-2023
Culture Club, Pensacola Museum of Art, Pensacola, Fl., 2000
Art And Wine, Julian Marcus Interiors, Pensacola, Fl., 2000
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
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“Best in Show”, Gulf Breeze News, 2021.
“Photography Entries Strong at UMPI’s Maine Maritime Show”, Star Herald, April 2002.
“Artists Eye”, Pensacola News Journal, November 2000.
“Culture Club Begins it’s Third Year”, Vision, February 2001.
“Culture Club Gathers to Promote Art Scene”, Pensacola’s Independent, November 2000.
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AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS AND HONORS
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People's Choice Award, It's Not What It Looks Like, Artel Gallery, Pensacola, FL 2025
2nd Place, 71st Annual PMA Members Show, Pensacola Museum of Art, Pensacola, FL 2025
Merchandise Award, 46th Southern Watercolor Society Annual Exhibition, Panama City, FL 2023
Peoples Choice Award, Seven Deadly Sins, Artel Gallery, Pensacola, FL 2023
Peoples Choice Award, Word, Artel Gallery, Pensacola, FL 2023
Honorable Mention, Word, Artel Gallery, Pensacola, FL 2023
1st place, Poster Design, Gulf Breeze Celebrates the Arts, Gulf Breeze, FL 2022
Best of Show, Gulf Breeze Celebrates the Arts, Gulf Breeze, FL 2021
Finalist, Poster design, Great Gulfcoast Arts Festival, Pensacola, FL 2021
1st Place, An American Experience, Milton Rhodes Galleries, Winston-Salem, N.C. 2002
Patron Award, Northern National Art Competition, Nicolet College Art Gallery, Rhinelander, WY 2002
Sponsors Choice Award, Great Gulfcoast Arts Festival, Pensacola, FL 2000
Finalist, Merchandise Design, Florida Springfest, Pensacola, FL 2000
Award of Excellence, Manhattan Arts 9th Annual Cover Art Competition, New York, N.Y. 2000
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Teaching Assistant, Photography, University of West Florida, Pensacola, FL 1997
Teaching Assistant, Histology, University of West Florida, Pensacola, FL 1993-1994
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MEMBERSHIPS
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Florida Watercolor Society
Northwest Watercolor Society
Southern Watercolor Society
Southwestern Watercolor Society
Portrait Society of America
Artel Gallery, Pensacola, FL
Pensacola Museum of Art, Pensacola, FL