David Tracey

Earlwood, Australia •

Artist (Painting) •

Born unknown date •

I am an artist based in Sydney, Australia.

I like to create beautiful art where the painting technique creates the look of the modern world as we now perceive it through digital techniques.

For many years I worked as a scenic artist creating sets and backdrops for film and television, painting very large images in film studios. It was high pressure and short deadlines but what a great time!

With the advent of computer graphics, I moved on to creating realistic animated content commercially, again specializing in environments and surface textures. But I have come back to painting, still the most satisfying medium. Portraits now, and skyscapes too, sometimes together on the same canvas. I work in oil and acrylic, painting our modern world; both so rich and beautiful.

I learnt so much from the modern disciplines (film work, computer graphics, photography) and found it all is relevant when painting. I use these modern elements to lift the image, to meet the expectations of the modern eye. Even flares, artifacts, and scattering all work beautifully in oil to create a visually satisfying piece that is still clearly handmade, wrought by human creativity.

The artists I admire are Elizabeth Vigee Le Brun, William Bouguereau, and Marcel Marlier; masters in the realistic style and technique they used in creating such believable skin tones.