Born in 1965, Aldridge was committed to art from a very young age. In junior high school, he attended art classes at the University of Arkansas; during his college career at Brigham Young University in Utah, he pursued his BFA and began exhibiting his art nationally. He attended the University of Arkansas to pursue his MFA. He now lives in Moroni, Utah, and continues to paint and create landscape pieces that are reminiscent of 19th century Romanticism and Tonalism, with loose brushstrokes common in 20th century art.
Aldridge’s pieces often use an oil paint medium, and he handcrafts each painting’s frame in his Utah studio. His art often depicts beautiful landscapes, with Aldridge saying:
“In these turbulent times, one of the few certainties of life is the beauty that surrounds us. It comforts, reassures, and beckons us forward. Beautiful and poetic landscape is constantly relevant and timeless. Landscape is the outward form or vehicle I’ve always chosen to convey my personal vision, but in my strongest works, the vision, and not the vehicle, is the true underlying subject.
I believe for art to be a meaningful form of communication, it must be heartfelt and authentic. Great art must be an accurate reflection of the artist’s view of the world. The world in which I find myself has elements of danger and longing to be sure, but I see my work as a reflection of my optimistic view that ultimately hope and beauty are always triumphant in the end.”