tracy burtz

As a professional painter for forty five years, Tracy Burtz expresses her emotions through composition, color, value, light, line, volume and space. Her process is contemplative—less the physical frenzy that informed her early work, a result of her traditional art education. In the last twenty years, Burtz has sought to move beyond, to try to ‘forget,’ some of her earlier assumptions. Her narrative is now more focused, and her paintings have ‘simplified’, and yet are more specific.

Each painting holds a process of concentrated exploration over a period of time, a building of abstract emotion on a two dimensional plane. Burtz begins each painting from life, but then the painting process takes over and the model is only brought back for drawing and color information. Burtz’s ultimate goal is for the work to resonate with the viewer; that the story is intimate and meaningful. Her paintings and drawings are mostly about being a woman, often autobiographical, about life and circumstances. The intent is that they are about women, but that the story becomes a personal one of connection and significance for all viewers. This body of work often include dogs. Burtz paints about their fidelity and relationship to her, as she says they were close at hand and rescued her from loneliness and isolation during the pandemic. For many, the embodiment of true constancy is the dog, who sits and watches and loves.

Tracy Burtz lives, works, and teaches in Westchester, NY. She is currently represented by The Painting Center, Edgewater Gallery (Middlebury VT), East End Gallery (Nantucket, MA), Nantucket Looms (Nantucket, MA), and Thomas Deans Fine Art (Atlanta, GA.)

www.tracyburtz.com @tracyburtz Artsy

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