Born in 1966 in Chicago, oil painter Tracey Frugoli has always known she would be an artist. Growing up in a creative household, she watched her father sketch and followed his lead. Later, she enjoyed unusually intensive art training in her suburban high school. She went on to earn a BFA from Illinois State University, and a MA in Art Therapy from Southern Illinois University. After 11 years as an art therapist, she turned her passion for painting into a full time endeavor.
Inspired by light and beauty, Frugoli most identifies with the American Impressionists. Unapologetically eschewing novelty and shock in favor of authenticity, she views the painting process as a humbling endeavor that seeks to reflect and thereby enhance the most noble of our ideals.
Frugoli has won many awards including Best of Show at the "Art Fair at Junction City" in 2008, First Place in the 2006 “Havre de Grace Plein Air Painting Competition” in Havre de Grace, MD; First Place in the 2005 “Plein Air Easton Quick Draw;” Best Architectural Painting in the 2005 “Plein Air Easton;” and Museum Purchase Award and Honorable Mention in the 2007 “Plein Air Easton” in Easton, MD. She has exhibited throughout the country and was accepted into Greenhouse Gallery’s “Salon International” in 2005, 2006 and 2009 in San Antonio, TX.
In 2007, two of her paintings were selected for the permanent collection at the Academy Art Museum in Easton, MD. Her work hangs in numerous private collections and appeared in the February 2004 American Artist and May 2005 Plein Air Magazine. From 2005-7, she freelanced for the American Artist quarterly periodical Workshop and is the current Illinois/Midwest Regional Editor for Fine Art Connoisseur.
Artist Statement
Art, Breath, Paint, Air . . .
For me, making art is like breathing. It describes my very essence. Just as a certain collection of notes and sounds in music can haunt the soul, color notes and paint strokes in oil stir a visceral reaction in me. My work is about light, color, movement, and relationships all within the traditional picture plane. Novelty and shock wear off, but truth endures. This is why a painter can devote an entire lifetime to the pursuit of it. Painting the beauty of the natural world in rich oil passages provides, for me, a sense of connection to that which is greater than me. When I am painting, I am both humbled and accepted. When you view or purchase my work, you too are offered that connection, that reaction. The paintings offer a piece in the puzzle of what we search for to complete us. Some people look to prayer, to God, to The Buddha, to nature, or to each other. Whatever it may be, these paintings, these experiences, are my prayer.
Some Press:
"Plein Air Easton! Prepares for 2008 Event" 2008
http://www.myamericanartist.com/2008/09/plein-air-easto.html
"Local Artists in Conjunction: Five Portraits," Art & Society, May/June 2009
http://www.peoriamagazines.com/as/2009/may-jun/local-artists-conjunction?page=0%2C0
Pictured below are Tracey Frugoli and her husband Ed.
