Paint Party Friday Week 35 Year 2 Check In Featured Artist: Tracey Fletcher King

image courtesy of Tracey Fletcher King
 

Welcome to Week 36 of Paint Party Friday (Year 2) and to the next edition of our Featured Artist Series! (Would you like to be a PPF Featured Artist? Please click here for details!). This week's featured artist elevates everyday objects with her masterful mark making... Each week she wows us with her watercolors and makes us laugh with her supreme sense of humor. Please welcome Tracey Fletcher King!
 

image courtesy of Tracey Fletcher King

 

Please tell us a bit about your personal history with painting. (When did you start painting? How has your painting evolved since you first started?)

Personal histories can be a bit long winded at times so here is the speed version: ... Always loved art, writing and reading... went to college... lots of academic art classes... became a high school teacher .... taught art... met Sinus Man... got married... left teaching and went on the road because he was a touring golf pro... spent the next 5 years in hotels and on planes... had Phantom Steve... kept travelling... no art at all ... give me a break you should try living out of a suitcase with a toddler in tow... spent most of the year living in Florida... drew lots of cartoon animals and Barney the freakin dinosaur ... moved home... Sinus became a club pro... Phantom went to school... and I breathed for the first time in 9 years...

 

Spent two years trying to find my artistic rhythm again... failed most days... ate plenty of chocolate to get over it ... had two years where it sort of came together... still needed lots of chocolate and tea to get through it.... went back to college... did a masters in Art Education and majored in Creativity Theory... opened a small art school... worked out I didn’t want to go back to teaching... when I finished the bloody Masters... closed the art school and went back to painting... freaked out at rubbish skills... spent two years doing botanical art to get skills going again ... got bored stupid by all the detail... got frustrated by trying to do such concentrated work in a madhouse... got bored writing a boring blog... threw my hands up in the air and thought I would just have fun with it and draw anything and everything around me and forget all the other rubbish that had cluttered my brain for so long... voila here I am now... blogging and drawing whatever takes my fancy.

Still eat lots of chocolate and drink masses of tea... but love it all to bits and wouldn’t change a thing...

image courtesy of Tracey Fletcher King

What are your favorite techniques, media, and tools to use in creating your paintings?

I love using pens and watercolour... any sort of pen will do, though Microns are my favourites, and I even like ones that are a bit smudgey when you add water. My favourite watercolours are a little cheap wheel of colours that I attach to a palette so I have room to mix colours though I do supplement it with Permanent Rose from tube watercolours, and I would be lost without my white gouache from Art Spectrum. When I am working on canvas, I use a mix of Golden acrylics and Matisse flow acrylics as they have Australian colours which is kind of cool ... The other tool I love to use is my blog... by making the commitment to post I have to also make the commitment to paint and draw.... and I get the bonus of being able to blame my abject failure as a domestic goddess on blogging time eating into housework time... that is one tool I am never giving up.

image courtesy of Tracey Fletcher King

What is your favourite thing to paint? Why?

I love to draw inspiration from around me. I paint the things I am familiar with on an everyday basis, or things that interest me... I love tea and cooking, and my somewhat gloriously haphazard home and garden, and all of these things provide endless subject matter. I also find the things that happen in our family life inspiring and Phantom, Sinus and my adorable fur baby Mushu, are fine with me sharing the happenings ... well to tell you the truth I have never really asked them, but if they don’t want me to write about stupid things they say or do then they should stop saying and doing them!!!! Sometimes I start with writing about what has been happening and the art grows from there, and sometimes something catches my eye and I run with that, but more than anything I try not to over think it.... if I want to paint a ratty old paintbrush, or the pile of dishes on the sink then I do... anything and everything is fair game as long as it sits still...

 

What is your proudest painting moment and/or greatest painting achievement so far?

I have had a lot of proud moments and every time a painting sells, or people order prints, pendants or cards, or they commission me to do work, I get a huge kick out of it... I love that my paintings live in places as diverse as Tanzania, Belgium, Sweden, Germany, UK, USA, Canada, and all over the country here... it is a great thought that there is a little piece of me floating out there on the other side of the world.

 

image courtesy of Tracey Fletcher King

What's next in your painting future?

Despite a failed attempt at drawing and writing a tea zine earlier in the year, I have made the decision to jump in and make a zine type deal of drawing and painting tips and tricks I have learnt through experience both as a painter and a teacher. For years I have resisted any return to teaching, but then I realised that I am no longer hemmed in by curriculums and all those boring education things... I could do it my way... woohoo baby.... no rules hemming me in means it is fun to write it... and by stating it here I will have to get in and finish it!!!! You are all hereby given permission to tease me mercilessly if I get distracted and off track on that one ... and maybe one day I would like to teach an online class... but that one is just a whisper at the moment

 

I sell my work through my blog and through facebook, and a lot of people contact me and commission work that way, or have bought cards and prints of my work. I also sell through a store called The Collective Store and am hoping to expand into more bricks and mortar venues as my time management gets better.

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Thank you for such a fun interview, Tracey... We look forward to seeing your zine and learning more about the whispers of an online class!

To learn more about Tracey, please visit her at:

http://traceyfletcherking.blogspot.com.au/

https://www.facebook.com/tracey.f.king

http://pinterest.com/traceyfk/

 

 **Would you like to be a PPF Featured Artist? (Of course you do!)
Click here for more details!**

Another busy party last week despite Hurricane Sandy. We hope anyone affected is unhurt and starting to dry out and get back to normal. Now, here is our check-in for this week's party:

As always, please make sure to use your post URL address NOT your blog home page URL address as there are many late visitors who get confused as to which post is for PPF when they arrive (after Friday) at your website. If you are unfamiliar with Mr. Linky, an explanation of how this tool works can be found on Week 1 and Week 2 Check-Ins.

Have a colourful and creative week everyone!