Featured Artist : Tracy Harris

Tracy Harris is a San Diego artist, creating vibrant silk paintings, Watercolor, Fused Glass, Lampwork and Jewelry.
Tracy works in several art media: Lampwork, Fused Glass, Jewelry Making, Watercolors and hand-painted silk. The contrast between them is significant, yet there is a harmony in their diversity, bringing excitement and balance to Tracy’s art practice.
His watercolor emphasizes fine detail, control and patience, while the essence of his silk painting lies in simple forms and vibrant flowing color. His painting is strongly influenced by his love of photography and the way a photograph represents just a moment in time. He loves capturing an image of something he’s recognized as beautiful.

Tracy typically paints subjects in watercolor in a tight realistic style from top to bottom. His silk paintings are in a realistic style with the background elements depicted as abstract representations of its surroundings: just impression of shape, color, texture and mood. This contrast adds visual drama to his paintings. Tracy enjoys finding opportunities to investigate new techniques and forms, and test technical boundaries of his materials, keeping his art work fresh and lively, and invested with a sense of wonder and discovery. Tracy enjoys color, contrast, and taking a lot of pictures for that next painting or project that makes him unique. This has been an incredible journey for him.
“Learning always learning – Creating always creating”

However different these media may be, both involve strict attention to detail and methodical approach to the application of the materials. Tracy creates a blend of water, urea, a little water softener (chemical water), then he uses Dharma Fiber Reactive Procion Dyes (his favorite), with a small amount of soda ash fixer. He also uses Jacquard silk colors (Green Label), and Dye-Na-Flow Fabric Paint. He finds that he likes to use and experiment with new dyes and paints. Gutta and water-based resists are chosen for different circumstances and characteristics needed for each art piece. Tracy uses Jacquard Metallic and Black Water-bases or Sennelier Aqua Guttas.

“Practice always Practicing” (it takes that with Gutta & Resists)

The detail and feel of the piece dictates the type of silk that he uses. He prefers Habotai 100% silk. Habotai 10mm works well for detailed fine line pieces, whereas Habotai silk (12mm or 16mm), allows for more of an abstract-less control piece. When the piece is done – Tracy enjoys using his new professional Vertical Electric Steamer that he bought from Dharma Trading Company.