Carrie Penley

Carrie Penley is an American artist known for her expressive style, blending energetic brushwork, contrast, and layered collage materials to create paintings that are both visually compelling and deeply narrative. Her work is a unique collaboration of realism and expressionism, where wildlife and equestrian subjects emerge from richly textured surfaces built from vintage magazines, historical imagery, handwritten text, and fragments of sheet music.

Born in a small town in Georgia, Penley’s love of the outdoors and wildlife is central to her work. Through her contemporary approach, she captures not only the presence of the animal, but also themes of resilience, movement, and the quiet harmony found in nature. Hidden elements within each piece reveal themselves over time, inviting the viewer to live with the work and uncover its story layer by layer.

After graduating from the University of Georgia, Penley worked as an interior designer in Atlanta on both local and national projects, an experience that continues to inform her sense of composition and design. A largely self-taught artist, she painted privately for over a decade while raising her family before establishing her full-time studio in 2012 and beginning to show her work publicly.

Penley’s work is now collected nationally and internationally, resonating with collectors who are drawn to its depth, texture, and storytelling. At its core, her work reflects a deep appreciation for the natural world and a desire to inspire connection—encouraging viewers to engage with nature, recognize its value, and carry that awareness forward.