Tracy Croucher Artist
Stories of love, life, faith, and waterfalls.
When we tell a story using words and sentences its description is linear. There is a sequential unfolding of one idea at a time and one after another. Paintings too tell stories, but are not constrained by the same code of delivery. The image can transfer a vast number of ideas or sensory responses all at once. In the telling of stories, painting pushes beyond the borders of language.These paintings tell our stories. These paintings were made in our houses and from our photographs. These paintings have some of our memories of the times and spaces we have been in together. They share something of our love for being together and the place we come from. They share something of faith that has guided the artist and those she loves. For those close to the artist, who shared the moments and spaces depicted in the work, these paintings have a beautiful quality of reminiscence. A flower pot in a room we recognise, the table my brother built at school, a place we used to swim. To us these works stir an affection for those times and spaces, normal but specific. We know the times and spaces but the perspective and expression are the artists. She shares her side of the story with us. What kinds of memories what kinds of experiences. For others the paintings are a window into those times and spaces. To them the paintings have another level of ambiguity; the story is new to them. In viewing the work they receive an invitation into that world that we know.
Tracy, particularly in her early work, has taken influence from Matisse identifiable in the expressions of human figures and colour palette. The still life work has influences from Bonnard with similarities in terms of it use of paint, pattern, and eccentric perspective. The later works share the interest of exploring water and light and with a similar use of textures as the work of Monet. These paintings are stories told by artist that invite the viewer to perceive those moments. They share directly times and spaces of significance. Indirectly they share the things that move her and the faith that guides her. Within Tracy’s story is a significant period away from painting. For the viewer of the work this is the gap between the ‘archived’ work and the ‘galleries’ traversable by the click of button. For the painter it was a number of years and a time of living and growing. A time which has no doubt had an effect on the work.
Tracy Croucher was born in Nelson 1962 and studied in Christchurch and was taught by Doris Lusk, Don Pebbles, and Phil Trusttrum. Ted Bracey was a much treasured encourager of her painting. She completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1984. She exhibited under the name Tracy Wilson from 1984 to 1993. Her work has been widely exhibited in New Zealand.
Harry Croucher