Tracy lives on a little island off the sunny North East coast of Australia, surrounded by the sea. She loves the peace, the landscape, and the abundance of wildlife. This quietness and freedom comes through in her images – they are tranquil, curious, and full of life.

 

 

She was was given her first camera when she was 10. She says “It was a dinky little plastic Bugs Bunny film camera. Oh how I loved that camera, it went everywhere with me!” But the Bunny camera is now lost, and Tracy has moved on. Now, her work has been featured on Apartment Therapy and Indie Fixx, amongst other fabulous places!

 

Tracy started off as a painter, and exhibited some of her work locally. Then she came across Etsy in 2007, but says she was initially too intimidated by all the other fabulous talent to list any work for sale! A year later she put up some paintings, and then followed with some of her photography.

She had been experimenting with alternative photographic processes for a while, and now uses a combination of vintage, traditional and modern techniques to achieve her rich textured images. However, striving for technical perfection  is not as important to her as capturing a little moment in time. “I find almost everything to be a source of inspiration and it’s about having a willingness to being open to whatever presents itself, as everything is worthy of contemplation; regardless of how small or commonplace it may be.”

 

 

She credits her immensely creative family as being a major influence in her life. “My grandfather was very artistic and did amazingly beautiful intricate charcoal drawings. My grandmother was an obsessive crafter and I don’t recall there ever being a time when she wasn’t wielding a pair of knitting needles or a crochet hook or embroidering or sewing something. My Mum enjoyed writing and was always madly scribbling down her thoughts in the form of poetry and short stories. Dad is creative in the garden. His perfectly manicured lawn is nothing short of a masterpiece!”

 

And she is always inspired by many other artists too. “One artist in particular that really stands out for me is Sydney artist Sam of matouenpeluche. Apart from creating the most exquisite pastel drawings, I also admire Sam for the way that she presents her work – she gives each of her pieces a unique background story and her obvious love of drawing shines through in each piece she creates and shares on her blog. Another impressive thing about Sam is her ability to continue to create new work on such a regular basis, she continues to blow me away week after week with all of the beautiful new drawings she produces. An amazing talent!”

 

She loves her creative space. “Being a photographer, I’m lucky that my creative space can be wherever I choose to go to take photos! But my indoors creative space is a spare room in my house. It has a large desk that runs from one end of the room to the other, and there is a built-in wardrobe full of tools and supplies. My favourite thing in the space is my large inspiration board filled with lots of small prints that I’ve purchased from my fave artists.” But she says, “I need another large board so I can acquire more little prints” … (I’m thinking this could go on for some time…)

You can find Tracy’s shop here; her blog here. She’s on Facebook and Twitter too.

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Thanks to Tracy for generously sharing her time and her images.