Nature at its most frank, kind and self-revelatory provides the starting point for each of Tracey Keller’s playful paintings. Working with an aesthetic that varies from hyperrealism to her own brand of quirky impressionism, she creates comic and endearing portraits and scenes of animals based on photographs and her own excursions. Born, raised and based in Queensland, Australia, Keller is a passionate adventurer and nature enthusiast – both above and below sea level – which has lead her into innumerable face to face encounters with her subjects.
These experiences give each work, even the most teasing and fantastic, a surprising degree of realism and intensity of definition. Proportions and textures, no matter how stylized, provoke immediate reactions in the viewer, conjuring sense memories of animals’ furs or the warm tropical waters of Keller’s seascapes. This ability to be at once lighthearted, mischievous, evocative and transporting makes each of her precise acrylic paintings endlessly enjoyable. Whether by their humor or their accuracy, Keller’s animal paintings always win us over.