SOLO EXHIBITION
SOLO EXHIBITION
SOLO EXHIBITION
The World's Leading Contemporary Fine Art Gallery
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The World's Leading Contemporary Fine Art Gallery
Tracey Lee
Cassin
NEW ZEALAND
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“My ocean-scapes encapsulate the many layers and beauty found within the oceans water.”
“Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.” - Erich Fromm. Tracey Lee Cassin is an award-winning published artist and photographer who is based in the beautiful lakeside community of Rotoma, in the Rotorua Lakes District of the Bay of Plenty in New Zealand.
Textural paint layers create an interesting visual effect to this piece which recognizes the separate connections within the elements that are the ocean and sky.
It’s become clear to me how complex the layers of the ocean and sky are, and how many hidden secrets are held within them. They are multidimensional structures shaped by the cycles of the moon, weather patterns, and volcanic influences. I have depicted all those traces, symmetries, and flowing transitions in an abstract style.
Her creative practice is multifaceted as a painter, mixed media artist, writer/blogger, and photographer with works in private collections in New Zealand, Australia, the USA, the United Kingdom, Scotland, and Italy.
Painted in strong colour combinations that visually offer a focal point of difference. This work is a surreal and powerful example of subject matter that should not realistically be placed together. The interactions of the chosen combination have special meanings. The roses, the beauty within the depths of our oceans and colours of a dusk sky. The darker blues, the waters current. I hope it offers an understanding to be more aware of the ocean and atmospheres integral part of of our survival.
She hails from a creative family background of hobby artists and musicians. As a child, Tracey Lee filled her world with imaginative crafts. An early memory is of gathering clay from the banks of a local creek to form small bowls which were then painted with patterns in bright colours. Her working history before becoming a professional creative was as a florist, radio copywriter and business director.
“Creative photography has elements of my own story that I failed to put into words.”
Tracey Lee’s autodidact practice explores many artistic aspects, particularly the fundamentals of space, shape, and colour using various mediums and techniques, in oil, watercolour, ink, printmaking, collage, and acrylics. She explores many genres and styles in all she does.
“There is very little desire for perfection or realism but an extension of thought via the placement of an infusion of strength, hope, and courage into what I create. I offer the viewer of my work a portal to those feelings.”
In the medium of creative photography, she uses various skills and techniques to create a masterful vision within her work. The use of colour and artistic techniques blend together in a visual statement. These innovative modified images are bright, colourful and compelling. Sometimes of a single subject or of blended subjects.
‘Heart Of The Sea’ is my contemporary version of the renowned woodblock print ‘The Great Wave Off Kanagawa’ by Japanese ukiyo-e artist Hokusai that was created in 1831.
This piece is painted using bold water-inspired colours that emotionally pulls the viewer inwards asking them to respect the ocean in all its power.
“The techniques I use, especially in the medium of oil create a multi-dimensional perspective for the viewer that offers a contemporary insight into the movement, power, liquidity, and colour of our beloved oceans.”
I am inspired by strong colour, light, shadow and shape, and enjoy seeing colours through my feelings.
‘I Knew Fate Would Send You My Way’ has a Japanese influence to it, in which I chose thick paints, and bold bright colour combinations to feel every stroke as it was painted. A brush and palette knife were the tools used to apply the paint to this emotive piece that declares the belief that a soulmate met is sent by fate.
TLee as she is known, has had original scores composed solely for her to compliment her practice. The self-portrait ‘Emotive’ series, which explored human emotions using paint, pencil, photography, and digital manipulation was one of these. The finale to the series was a collaboration of her images, and music by United Kingdom pianist, composer, and conductor Chris Hopkins.
This piece is part of a large series of works which are oceanic-inspired, exploring the rustic, powerful, unrefined and sublime elements of the water. The paint is layered, featuring turbulent currents and movement. The thought behind the painting is that it is a reminder that nature is a force beyond our human control.
As an artist, I attempt to capture moments of it, and how these moments relate to our internal emotions.
We are so much like the ocean, sometimes calm, sometimes tumultuous.
In all the work she presents you will see an inspiring use of colour. Her contemporary subject matters are influenced by the patterns and colours found in nature, the ocean, and the human face, in lyrics and in poetry. Often hidden symbolism such as hearts, numbers, spirals, and faces appear in her work. Sometimes these are intentional, sometimes they are not.
‘Merging Waves’ is another painting from the oceanic series of works, in which I explore the rustic, powerful, unrefined and sublime elements of the water. In this piece, the paint is layered, featuring turbulent currents and movement.
The ocean is a vast mystery and an evolving force. It never remains the same and this is where I aim for my water paintings to also have a connection to human emotions and the ebb and flow of life.
Contemporary seascapes feature prominently in her body of work. These are painted in oil, acrylic or watercolour with ink detail. They are birds-eye, abstract or viewed in a contemporary manner of being within the water looking back to the swell of the waves and horizon.
‘Power Or Prey’ has a mystical feel, showing the viewer there is power in the ocean, a wave, the clouds brewing a storm, and the hawk, one of New Zealand’s birds of prey.
The vulnerability in the woman depicted uses her imaginary spirit bird to shield herself from facets of worldly unpredictability and chaos.
The bird riding the wave is a reminder we must trust our universal path forward as it ebbs and flows in the tides of life.
“As an artistic photographer, I have a special interest in digital and colour manipulation.”
This contemporary seascape painting captures the ocean from an aerial perspective. Just as if you were viewing from the eyes of a seabird or the viewer of a drone.
The use of blended sea-inspired colours and thoughtful composition is painted in a way you feel magically close to the source. Its peacefulness pulls you in as you observe the ebb and flow of a magnificent ocean as its tidal waters flow over the ridges and shallow sandbanks beneath the rippling waves.
She creates passionate water images that capture movement and beauty using combinations of contemporary colour, patterns, sand, rock, light, shadow, and sky. A recent critique of her water paintings comments that, ‘Tracey Lee possesses incredibly intuitive talent and technical proficiency within several creative realms, though it is her contemporary seascapes alone which compel to her testimony. Clearly, a deep affinity and innate connection with the ocean exists here.
I love to create dramatic, atmospheric seascape paintings. In this work, I wanted to convey that the ocean is ever-changing. Sometimes the water is merely a gentle rise and fall from the rock, or as in this instance, a powerful splashing source caused by the turmoil of the currents. I frequent the coastline often to observe the energy of this environment, and then reinvent what I experience in a contemporary artistic way with the paint.
Tracey Lee’s works are driven by a heightened sensitivity, understanding and passion of seas. She captures a unique and precious personality in this environment - allowing the viewer a trance-like, fresh appreciation. ‘Sometimes subtle, sometimes tumultuous, and at all times… alluring.’
A contemporary conceptual abstract artwork influenced by many aspects of New Zealand.
The sea, beach, and the summer sky with the basketry pattern are painted in bold bright colours which represent the earth, the diversity of life and its dynamics. I wanted to convey a spiritual message to the viewer of a colourful summer scene that blends cultures, and respect for our environment with the knowledge that the ocean makes all life on Earth possible.