Tracey Frugoli

"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."

Born in 1966 in Chicago, oil painter and photographer Tracey Frugoli has always known she would be an artist. Growing up in a creative household, she enjoyed unusually intensive art training in her suburban high school. She went on to earn a BFA in fine art, and a MA in Art Therapy. She has been painting in her current style since 1998 and done portrait photography since 2011.

Inspired by light and beauty, Frugoli unapologetically eschews 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. Her painting and photography cross pollinate to keep her work fresh and vital.

Frugoli has won numerous painting awards including Best of Show & Main Street Pain Out 2013 and Award of Excellence & 2nd Place Quick Draw 2012 at “Sedona Plein Air” in AZ; First Place 2012 "Wayne Plein Air" in PA.  In MD they include Artist's Choice 2012 "Paint Annapolis"; Second Place and People’s Choice 2009 “MAPAPA Dueling Brushes”, Museum Purchase Award & Honorable Mention 2007 and  First Place Quick Draw and Best Architectural Painting 2005 “Plein Air Easton”; and First Place “Havre de Grace Plein Air” 2006. She has exhibited throughout the country, and has been accepted into Greenhouse Gallery’s “Salon International” 2005-6, and 2009-12 in San Antonio, TX and won Jury’s Top 50 award in 2011.

Frugoli’s artwork hangs in the permanent collection at the Academy Art Museum in Easton and in numerous private collections. It has appeared in American Artist and Plein Air. She has written freelance for Workshop Magazine, Plein Air, and Fine Art Connoisseur (FAC). She was an Illinois/Midwest Regional Editor for FAC, and her most recent article, about the Hoosier Salon, appeared in the November/December 2013 issue. She was a founding member of the Central Illinois Artists Organization (CIAO) in Peoria, IL.