Tracey Luckner: Abstract Landscapes—Wayfinding

Tracey Luckner, Blue Skies Ahead, 2022, acrylic on canvas, 30 x 36 inches.

Artist’s Statement:

My current series Abstract Landscapes: Wayfinding paintings is in part a personal journey for me as an artist, exploring mark-making, shapes, and materials in new ways. I have always been drawn to nature, painting nature’s organic forms, expressive color, rhythmic movement, and the vastness of the natural world.

My new work also includes lines within the landscape – like roads or fences – as well as sometimes bits of collage and words – a human element. Emotion is also more present in my current work. Sometimes the emotions are joyful, celebrating the beauty of the present moment as in Use the Good Dishes or Say Yes! Other times they are more introspective, seeking centeredness, as in Quiet Place or August Afternoon.

This shift in my art feels like it is expressing that as the natural world (especially aspects of climate change such as storms, temperature swings, and their effects
on our communities) increasingly intersects with our everyday lives, it becomes harder to separate nature and civilization. Emotions become heightened. Therefore, wayfinding is needed to navigate our evolving reality, both with how to stay centered in the present as well as with planning for the future. Similarly, as life keeps unfolding for me, my art helps

Artist’s Bio
Tracey Luckner is a lifelong artist living in Summit, NJ. She has degrees from Pomona College in Los Angeles and Columbia University in New York. She studied Art History at the Sorbonne in Paris and painting at the School of Visual Arts in New York, the Woodstock School of Art in Woodstock, NY and the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey. Tracey had her first solo show of abstract landscapes titled A Sense of Place in 2012 in Port Washington, NY, and has exhibited widely in New Jersey. In 2021, Tracey left her corporate job to pursue art full time. She had a duo show at Reeves-Reed Arboretum in spring 2022 with photographer Leonard McDonald titled Nature In and Out of Focus. Her studio is at Manufacturers Village in East Orange, NJ and her work is in collections throughout the US.