Biography

The playful art of Kelly Tracht is inspired by the graphic simplicity and abstraction of modernism, but is reinterpreted with the added dimension of spontaneous bravura and impasto texture associated with artists such as Sorolla and Sargent.

The paint is applied in large, expressive brushstrokes with oversized brushes and palette knives, leaving a fresh, expressive trail of the original movement of the artist’s hands.

Nature and wildlife themes are explored and expressed with innocence, purity and light in highly saturated, pleasing palettes. These elements come together to create a visually satisfying and harmonious final image.

Tracht has degrees in Architecture and Art from the University of Florida and Miami University (of Ohio). She worked and lived in Miami, Chicago and Tampa in the architectural field and studied abroad in Italy where she was exposed to the techniques and philosophies of the Old Master Renaissance painters.

She developed her own style of fresh modernism with impressionistic influences after her father, who was trained by a European master, introduced her to painting in oils. Kelly credits her time studying under artist Christopher Still with opening her eyes to the unlimited possibilities of painting and the Florida landscape.

Her work is mostly centered around her experiences in the natural environments of Florida and the wildlife encounters it uniquely affords. She and her husband, Rich Tracht, now own Kelly Tracht Gallery in Jupiter, FL. She has been painting professionally since 1997.