My name is tracie and I am from London, England.  My passion as an artist grew many years ago and began when I couldn't afford to buy paintings for my own walls.  Friends were extremely encouraging after seeing a mural I painted on my children's bedroom wall and without my knowing, put my name down as a 'contributor' at a local charity art exhibition.  I about went into panic having been a very shy and private person and had never touched a real paintbrush in my life!  :) I remember being terrified that I would get it wrong and waste everyone's money, let alone the faith they had in me to do it.  Nooooo confidence whatsoever! :)

Those same friends made sure I never had any excuse to not give it go and got together to buy me my first watercolours, brushes, pencils, pastels and papers as a surprise, and four month early, birthday present all those years ago :)  The first real painting I ever did, was the Monument of the Great Fire of London.  It sold immediately and made a substantial amount for the charity.  St Johns Wood church was the second painting I did for the same event, which also sold for far more than I imagined it would, again, the funds raised went to good causes which was terrific!  I'll be forever grateful to those friends, whom without them, I would never have had the confidence to have tried in the first place.  I could never have donated the amount of money raised personally, so it was a wonderful feeling to have contributed the amount raised to the final total, just by doing what I'd always wanted to do :)

Self taught, I began to grow in confidence and dared myself to try something far more intricate.  I'd always wanted to paint people.  I love the human form in all its shapes and colours, and once I started there was no going back.  I love eyes.  If the eyes are wrong, the whole picture will be wrong, but if they're right, they can look straight through you.  You'll notice that many of my paintings are headless.  This is because I like allowing people to use their own imaginations when they see one of my paintings.  I like the paintings to become personal to the viewer.  Who do they think it is?  Do they see themselves?  Their lover?  An ex or a fantasy?  The paintings become personal to each person and tell a different story to every individual who's eye might be drawn to them.

My style  has also changed over time as I began to take on light and dark more and more.  I love the contrasting bold of black, against the natural coffee, cream and biscuit colours of skins for example.  Most of my work is painted from photographs as I'm one of these people who get the urge to paint at the oddest of hours, sometimes getting the brushes out at 3am if I have an idea in my mind, and has also allowed me to reach a lot further away from home as far as requested portraits and images go :)

I hope you enjoy my works as I have enjoyed painting them, and that hearing how I started, someone reading this might be encouraged to try things they've always wanted to do, also. :)

Thanks to everyone who has helped me or contributed their wonderful images for me to paint, to these people in particular for all the help, encouragement and faith they have shown in me for so many years;

Ron Stone, Nathalie, Anthony, David Hall who encouraged me in the very beginning, and to Louis, always there, and always shown faith in me - friends forever..
Luna and Robert for keeping this computer working for me :)
Kat (Leather Family and Chesterfield Conclave)
Thank you to David (aka Master Cosmic) for making the body artwork possible (see you at the LAM) and of course to
foxxx (The Lady of the LAM) for your continous support in all areas..x

Abdus and Mike - thank you for believing in me and for all the support you have given over the last few months, know how much your help and guidance is appreciated.

Alexis - for your patience, wisdom, common sense and for that incredible down to earth kick you can give to a girl's backside (or anyone's for that matter ;) ), I'll forever be grateful for all your help. Thank you :)

To Mark - you are an inspiration to me in so many ways. More than a Muse, and more than words can say, I love you..xxx

A huge thank you also, to Philip Newborough and his continued support in running this website. You've been a tremendous help to me as this website alone inspires me to do more and more :)

You all need to know just how appreciated you all are..x