The Colorful, Sweet Art of Traci Bixby

Kenmore's Traci Bixby can barely remember a time without crayons or some other drawing instrument in her hand.  Some of her earliest memories are coloring at her little bedroom table with her mom and dad.


Drawing and coloring continued through her school years, and took her to Seattle's School of Visual Concepts.  SVC began in 1971, at which experts in the field do the teaching.  These experts had a huge positive effect on Traci, who studied there for four years.  She says " I took everything from figure drawing to pastel, oil painting to color theory. But when I took the watercolor class, my heart just soared. I had found my medium."

Moonlight Picnic

Traci's paintings have an illustrative approach, and seem to lend themselves to telling a story.  She tries to capture the images and feelings she sees in her head and her heart.  According to Traci, "sometimes I'm overwhelmed with those images and feelings and the best way to express them is through my paintings."  Her most successful works lead viewers to dive in and participate in the story, adding their own imagination to it.  

Studio Set-up: easel, light, laptop, straight edge,
and color options

Sweet 16

Traci finds herself surrounded by inspiration on a daily basis.  She's always got her sketchpad at the ready, waiting for that vision to appear so she can capture it.  But rather than simply drawing a scene, Traci draws how the scene feels, taking it into a whole new realm of emotional value.  When asked about her sources of inspiration, Traci said "Inspiration can be as simple as sitting in my car on the darkest of gray Seattle days and a woman will walk across my path with a bright red coat and yellow umbrella. All I see are shapes and colors. It's the contrast of that one moment in time that inspires me."

Traci at the drawing board, at the table seen
in the image above in her studio

Magnolia

One of my personal favorite pieces of Traci's was, she says, inspired by a visit to Seattle's Discovery Park - a favorite place of mine to visit.  The many magnolia trees there inspired Traci to paint this work, with the view of the water in the background.  This card has words on it, with the front saying "Wish Upon A Star and..." inside it says "Dream Big Dreams."  If you've ever visited Discovery Park, and been awed by the trees, the water and the mountains beyond, it truly lends itself to dreaming big dreams!


Meet Traci in person on Thursday, June 21, from 5 - 8 pm!  She'll bring along her paint and paper and do a demonstration for us, too.  You can purchase prints and greeting cards, and perhaps some other little lovelies, too.  And if you can't make it, find her cards on hand at the gallery any time!


Hope to see you,
Manya Vee


ManyaVeeSelects.com