Tracy Klinesteker
Art Hop Artist; Visual Artist: Painting
It is all about color! I have always reacted very strongly to it. I paint with pastels because of this love for pure color. Because pastels are an opaque medium, I have to layer color over color to create blends. I work with sticks, pencils, and rubber smudgers. I try to avoid using black and white for shadows and highlights, and make different marks to create texture and depth. I gravitate toward detail in my paintings, but recently, I have tried to loosen up a little. I work an area until I feel it looks right to me, then struggle to leave it be. I find pastels a fascinating and challenging medium to work in. My subjects are eclectic. If a scene strikes me, I’ll try it. My abstracts are pure color celebrations, using as many colors in my palette as I can.
Artist Statement:
“…Standing in the cold with…a seismically red autumn leaf…it’s color hitting
our senses like a blow from a stun gun,…we stand with a huge grin, too paralyzed
by the intricately veined gaudiness of the leaf to move.”
— Diane Ackerman, “A Natural History of the Senses”, 1990, p 256, Random House.
It is all about color! I have always reacted very strongly to it. As my favorite
author Diane Ackerman describes above, I am sometimes too stunned to move.
I paint with pastels because of this love for pure color.
Pastel sticks are pure pigment with binder added to keep them together. The less binder, the purer the pigment, the softer the pastel. Soft pastels blend beautifully and create that lovely, painterly brushstroke. Hard pastels and pencils are for straight edges and fine details.
Because pastels are an opaque medium, I have to layer color over color to create blends. I work with sticks, pencils, and rubber smudgers. I try to avoid using black and white for shadows and highlights, and make different marks to create texture and depth. I gravitate toward detail in my paintings, but recently, I have tried to loosen up a little. I work an area until I feel it looks right to me, then struggle to leave it be. I find pastels a fascinating and challenging medium to work in. My subjects are eclectic. If a scene strikes me, I’ll try it. My abstracts are pure color celebrations, using as many colors in my palette as I can. I have fallen deeply in love with this medium and I am having way too much fun!
Current news:
Working on a diptych called “Locks of Love.” I’ve worked with Helen Kleczynski in her Art House Studio in Vicksburg for about two years now. “Spring Leaf” was accepted into The Great American Paint In Project, which is a group of artists chosen internationally for paintings completed during the first lockdowns of the pandemic. Interview on WMUK’s Art Beat airing on January 8, 2021. Will have a show in the Hand & Wrist waiting area at Bronson Hospital in Kalamazoo from March through June 2021. Will teach Beginning Pastel Painting with WMU’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute in the summer of 2021.
Juried Awards:
1st Place: “Martini on the Rocks” 2020 Southwest Florida Pastel Society Valued Strokes Show.
Second Place & People’s Choice: “Sacred Cairn” 2020 Westminster Presbyterian Church Art Festival.
Best in Show: “Spring Leaf” 2020 KVCC Alumni+ Art Show, Center for New Media.
2nd Place: “Martini on the Rocks” 2020 NorthWind Fine Arts Gallery’s Annual Juried Show.
Special Recognition: “Autumn Leaves” Nov 2019 LightSpaceTime.com Nature Art Exhibition.
2nd Place: “Door Series #2: Red Portal” Chroma 2019 Pastel Society of Colorado Show.
2nd Place: “H.O.M.E.S.” 2019 KVCC Alumni+ Art Show, Center for New Media.
Honorable Mention: “Martini on the Rocks” Pastel 100 Competition, Pastel Journal, April 2019 issue.
Special Recognition: “Sammy” May 2018 LightSpaceTime.com Animal Art Exhibition.
People’s Choice/Committee Prize: “H.O.M.E.S.” 2018 Westminster Presbyterian Church Art Festival.
First Place: “Autumn Leaves” 2017 Westminster Presbyterian Church Art Festival.
People’s Choice: “Screaming Bloody Murder” 2016 Westminster Presbyterian Church Art Festival.