Can a figure ride a bike on a phone line, toe-dance on a mountain top or cartwheel across the bottom of a canvas? Sure, I am very serious about having fun with my art. While the recognizable imagery appeals to us, I am obviously not painting beauty or perfection, but our experiences. How does it feel to be free where gravity holds little sway and color can be arbitrary?
Fun and freedom are part of my painting process from the very first strokes of color. The Impressionist's objective was to lay colors next to each other and allow them to mix in the viewer's mind. This technique is particularly applicable to today's fast-drying acrylics. Taking advantage of the media's pesky drying time gives my work a rich and dazzling surface. For instance, by dragging a smattering of lime green over a hot pink under-painting, the painting's surface comes alive. Then I impose reality on this surface by what is called negative painting--painting around the image in order to bring it into being.
My firm foundation in color and design organizes each piece and moves it beyond whimsy. Irony, a passion of mine, asserts itself in the street signs as well as the imagery. Can you ride a bike through a puddle at the corner of Safe and Sorry Streets? Then I take full advantage of gallery-wrapped canvas by writing a quotation up the edge of each painting to add insight and humor. "Risk being sorry."
My Free-Range Children Series are colorful, contemporary paintings for adult children. These paintings are my reality.
Biography
Tregay's freedom in art comes from experience. After years of realistic painting, she spent another year writing a book on her expertise, then put realism aside in order to charge into her imagination. Freedom also came in the form of a grant from the North Carolina Arts Council to build a ventilation system for her studio, allowing her to choose whatever medium the painting is "calling" for.
Freedom comes from knowledge. Her painting career began in Buffalo, New York, where abstract painting ruled and content was its secret ingredient. In Illinois years later, she spent weekends roaming Chicago's contemporary art galleries and the Art Institute of Chicago where she absorbed the new innovations that were emerging in painting. These lessons are the foundation for her newest work.
Then moving to Hendersonville, NC, Tregay realized her affinity for folk art and the self-assured creativity that these artists possess. Her creativity, imagination and expertise has found a home.
Tregay is a nationally recognized artist, participating in international exhibitions, and recently winning awards from the Society of Acrylic Painters, Watercolor USA and the Miami Watercolor Society. Her newest work has been accepted into an exhibition at the Andrews Art Museum, Andrews, NC, fall, 2010 and the Turchien Center for the Arts, Boone, NC, fall 2013. 38 Corporations have her paintings in their collections.
She is a signature member of the National Watercolor Society and the Transparent Watercolor Society of America, and she teaches workshops around the country. Tregay is the author many articles and the book and DVD, Master Disaster: Five Ways to Rescue Desperate Watercolors [North Light Publishers, 2007]. Check out her painting archives on, www.tregay.com.Resume--click here