While I am not interested in copying nature like a camera I do use it as a starting point for a composition. I have always been intrigued by nature, patterns, color, puzzles, healing modalities, and the power of the intuitive process. In addition to being a professional artist. I am also a certified yoga instructor and certified Reiki practitioner. Reiki is a Japanese system for channeling universal life force energy to someone or something for the purpose of healing. The influence of these two practices contribute to the tranquility and balance felt in my artwork. An important factor as to why my original oils have been commissioned through art consultants for numerous projects throughout the US. In traditional landscape painting the goal of the artists is to capture on canvas the exact outward appearance of the natural beauty before him. The viewer of this type of painting responds to it as a pleasurable reminder of a scene previously enjoyed in nature. My intent is for the observer to have an uplifting positive emotional response to my abstract landscapes and perhaps a memory association. My viewers are interested in the sophistication, beauty, spirit, hints of nature, colors, and rich textures found in my artwork. Through a complex layering process I turn visual stimuli into an arrangement on canvas that affects oneʼs emotions directly, not by mirroring natural beauty but by creating a new composition infused with reiki healing energies. The textures, colors and forms become a creation themselves enticing the viewer into the artwork and elevating
their consciousness. I am painting landscape from the inside, this is a nonrepresentational approach to a traditional genre, examining the way that nature enters the work of art subconsciously in response to the sheer act of painting. In additional to my original oils, I also create monotypes on archival paper they are very popular with art consultants. For the design industry I have a lower price point product line of licensed fine art giclees with the company Cloudwatchers under the name.
Tracy Lynn Pristas paints large-scale abstract landscapes, oil and cold wax abstracts, mixed-media acrylics, encaustics and monotypes. Tracy works in a number of syles and multiple motifs.
Pristas has completed over 25 successful commissions. Tracy’s paintings can be found in various healthcare settings, including collections at Northwestern Memorial Hospital (Chicago), Central DuPage Hospital (Winfield, IL.), Lutheran General Hospital (Park Ridge, IL.), St. John’s Mercy Medical Center (St. Louis), Mayo Clinic (Jacksonville, FL), Exempla Saint Joseph Hospital (Denver), Swedish Covenant Hospital (Chicago), University of Montana Law School (Missoula, MT), and Montana State University, Gaines Hall, (Bozeman, MT). She is represented by numerous fine art galleries nationally. Pristas has a line of licensed images with the international company Winn Devon & Canadian Art Prints. Her images have been selected for their 2016 January Poster and Canvas Collection Look Book.
Early on in her career, Tracy was awarded five community arts grants from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. This contributed to her success as a selftaught Chicago painter. She has been honored with artist-in-residencies programs from the Ragdale Foundation, Jentel Arts Program and Brush Creek Foundation for the arts. She is a 2014 recipient of a direct purchase award from the Montana Arts Council. Her artwork has been featured in the 2015 Lake Forest Designers Showhouse & Gardens, published in Chicago Magazine, Chicago Sun Times, Professional Art Magazine, Pittsburgh Tribune Review, Atlanta Style & Design, The Denver Post and more.
If your television is a shrine in your living room, you might have seen Pristas’s paintings on the Lifetime Television hit series “Drop Dead Diva.”Movie aficionados may have spotted some Pristas paintings in the Jennifer Aniston-Vince Vaughn movie “The Break-Up.” Tracy was born in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. For 17 years she maintained a studio in Chicago along the city’s Ravenswood industrial corridor, with an elevated train rumbling by her windows. She now resides in Littleton, Colorado, and is freed from having to wear noise-reduction headphones while she paints. Thankfully, the foothills are a transition zone — not a transit zone.
2014 The Clare @ Rush & Pearson
Senior Living Facility, Chicago, IL
2013 Old West Museum, Western Spirit, Cheyenne, WY
2013 Above & Beyond Veronique Wantz Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
2012 Fine Line Design Gallery, Door County, WI
2012 Holiday Miniature Exhibit. Poudre Gallery, Ft. Collins, CO
2012 Space Gallery, Denver, CO
2012 Bella Vista Art, Asheville, NC
2011 Fine Line Design, Door County, WI
2011 Ravenswood Art Walk, Chicago, IL
2011 Bresler Eitel Fine Art, Milwaukee, WI
2010 Bella Vista Art Gallery, Asheville, NC
2010 Fine Line Design, Door County, WI
2010 Ravenswood Art Walk, Chicago, IL
2009 Bennett Street Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2009 Fine Line Design, Door County, WI
2009 Ravenswood Art Walk, Chicago, IL
2008 Bella Vista Art Gallery, Asheville, NC
2008 Bennett Street Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2008 Fine Line Design, Door County, WI
2007 Artizen Fine Art, Dallas, TX
2007 Lydon Fine Art, Chicago, IL
2007 Bennett Street Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2007 Ravenswood Art Auction, Chicago, IL
2006 Lydon Fine Art, Chicago, IL
2006 Chicago Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL
2006 The Rice Gallery Of Fine Art, Leawood, KS
2005 Lydon Fine Art, Chicago, IL
2005 Chicago Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL
2004 Spring Street Gallery, Galena, IL
2004 Chicago Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL
2003 Chicago Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL
2003 Chicago Artists Month, Chicago, IL
2002 Wood Street Gallery, Chicago, IL
2002 Chicago Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL
2002 D- Gallery, Evanston, IL
2001 Chicago Artists Month, Chicago, IL
2001 Solo Exhibition Peter Jones Gallery, Chicago, IL
2000 Belle Plaine Studios, Chicago, IL
1999 Suburban Fine Arts, Highland Park, IL
1999 Belloc Lowndes Fine Art, Chicago, IL
1999 Expressions Graphic Gallery, Oak Park, IL
MEDIA COVERAGE / PUBLICATIONS
2014 Denver Post
YourHub
2013 American Art Collector Juried Competition - Alcove Books
2012 American Art Collector Juried Competition - Alcove Books
2012 Loveland Daily Reporter-Herald, Loveland, CO
2011 Paintings On Lifetime TV “Drop Dead Diva”
2011 Door County Style Magazine
2010 Paintings On Lifetime TV “Drop Dead Diva “
2009 Paintings On Lifetime TV “Drop Dead Diva”
2008 Atlanta Style & Design
2008 Art Galleries & Artists Of The South
2006 Painting In Universal Studios Blockbuster Movie “The Break - Up”
2006 CBS 2 Evening News Interview
2006 Chicago Magazine
2006 Pittsburgh Tribune
2005 The Artful Home
2005 Chicago Reader
2004 Crain’s Chicago Business
2004 Chicago Learning Guide
2004 Chicago Artist Coalition
2003 Yoga Chicago - Art Review
2003 Lenner Skyline Chicago
2000 Featured Interview MUSE cable access TV.
1998 Chicago Sun Times
1996 Chicago Sun Times Around The Coyote Art Review
GRANTS & AWARDS
2013 Artist Residency Program, Jentel Fellowship Award, Banner, WY
2012 Artist Residency Program, Brush Creek Foundation For The Arts, Saratoga, WY
2012 Art Slant Curatorial Team Showcase Winner, International
2010 Art Slant Curatorial Team Showcase Winner, International
2008 Atlanta Symphony’s Decorators Show House Featured Painter. Atlanta, GA
2003 Community Arts Assistance Grant, Department of Cultural Affairs, Chicago, IL
2000 Community Arts Assistance Grant, Department of Cultural Affairs, Chicago, IL
1999 Artist Residency, The Ragdale Foundation, Lake Forest, IL
1999 Community Arts Assistance Grant, Department of Cultural Affairs, Chicago, IL
1998 Curators Choice Award, Around The Coyote, Chicago, IL
1998 Community Arts Assistance Grant, Department of Cultural Affairs, Chicago, IL
1996 Community Arts Assistance Grant, Department of Cultural Affairs, Chicago, IL
COLLECTIONS
2013 Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL
2013 Exempla Saint Joseph Hospital, Denver, CO
2012 Greater Latrobe Junior High School, Latrobe, PA
2010 Northwestern Memorial Medical Faculty Foundation’s Pelvic Center, Chicago, IL
2010 International School, Dusseldorf, Germany
2009 Central Dupage Hospital, Winfield, IL
2009 Lutheran General Hospital, Park Ridge, IL
2008 St. John’s Hospital, St Louis, MO
EDUCATION
1999 Level 1 & 2 Certification, Usui System Of Natural Healing, Chicago, IL
1997 Yoga Instructor Certification, White Lotus Foundation, Santa Barbara, CA
1987 B. A. Miami University, Oxford, OH / Universidad De Granda, Granda, Spain
GALLERIES & ART CONSULTANTS
Artwork Network Galley, Denver, CO
Bella Vista Fine Art, Asheville, NC
Fine Line Designs, Door County, WI
Fogle Fine Art Consultants, Nashville, TN
HG Art Consultants, Orlando, FL
LBD Fine Art Consultants, Chicago, IL
Nine Dot Art Consulting, Denver, CO
Veronique Wantz Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
