Show Preview | Coda Gallery: Tracey Lane & Kim Brown

Park City, UT, December 28

Tracey Lane, Imaginary Moon, acrylic, 40 x 36.

This story was featured in the December 2012 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Order the Southwest Art magazine December 2012 print edition here, or purchase the Southwest Art magazine December 2012 digital download here. Or simply subscribe to Southwest Art magazine and never miss a story!

Long before Tracey Lane started painting, she felt a deep connection to the earth and to trees in particular. “My sense of place is really strong, and I have this sort of innate connection to the land,” she says. Lane’s childhood memories include exploring the 14-acre forest where her mother still lives just outside of Atlanta, GA, and summers spent with her family on Jekyll Island, GA, where the “gnarly branches of magnificent live oaks dripped with Spanish moss.”

Lane didn’t realize how important these memories and connections would be until much later. In college she began pursuing a veterinary education, then thought she wanted to be a medical doctor instead. But when she took an art- history class as an undergraduate elective, everything changed. Her passion for art led her to a master’s degree in art history and the goal of becoming a curator. She dabbled in painting throughout her life but never considered herself an artist. After graduation she began working at an art gallery and was inspired to take art classes in her spare time. In 2001, Lane had her first solo show. By 2003, she had gallery representation and was making a living from her art.

Tracey Lane, Under the Mulberry Tree, 45 x 45.

Lane’s choice of subject matter came naturally from her lifelong love of trees. In her early works she often used real leaves to add texture. Today, Lane’s works are created on wood panels using acrylic paints. Texture is still emphasized by using both brushes and palette knives to combine heavy, thickly applied paint with watery washes. “This process enables me to capture the spirit of the subject, its wildness,” Lane says.

The majority of her subject matter is still trees and landscapes, but birds and horses have recently begun to emerge in her work as well. “I think my work has gotten more real over time,” Lane muses. “I’ve become even more passionate about it, so now there’s an emotional connection in my work that maybe wasn’t  there before.”

Kim Brown, Counting to Ten, terra cotta clay, 17 x 5 x 5.

Lane’s connection to nature is on display this month at Coda Gallery in a two-person show with Kim Brown. The show opens with a reception on Friday, December 28, from 6 to 9 p.m., and features 25 new paintings by Lane and several new works by Brown, who creates dolls from terra cotta clay. “Brown’s dolls look like they could be nymphs that came out of Lane’s paintings,” says gallery director Jenefer Schumacher, adding, “They’re very harmonious together.”

Each piece Brown creates is fired multiple times and has several layers of stains and oxides. The artist uses clay because “there are endless possibilities of construction and surface embellishments” that allow her to convey the form, volume, and complexity of the human figure. “My sculptures express concerns and experiences I have or observe in others around me,” Brown says. Her latest body of work is inspired by her “ongoing search for patience and a wish to listen and observe more in a reactionary world.”—Lindsay Mitchell

contact information
435.655.3803
www.codagallery.com

Featured in the December 2012 issue of Southwest Art magazine–click below to purchase:
Southwest Art magazine December 2012 digital download
Southwest Art magazine December 2012 print edition
Or subscribe to Southwest Art magazine and never miss a story!