Tracey McCracken Palmer
This user has not added any information to their profile yet.
I feel that my felted wool paintings are a different and unique approach to the ordinary. Using dyed wool as my pigment, and a felting needle as my paintbrush, I am able to create as much detail with wool as with an actual paint brush and pigment, and I enjoy every minute of it!
I am a native of Haywood County in Western North Carolina. Art has always been a part of my life - as a young girl I fell in love with graphite pencil, filling countless sketch pads with my drawings. In high school, I started exploring the world of acrylics, adding watercolor and soft pastels to my painting mediums through the years. I am a self-taught artist with no formal schooling. In 2013 I stumbled upon the medium of two-dimensional felting in the work of a Scottish artist who had just written a book on her technique. I bought her book to learn the basic technique of layering the wool and wet felting, and since have created my own style of needle felting in added details. Felting has opened up a whole new path of inspiration and passion for me, and is the medium I'd been looking for my whole life. The whole process is very time consuming and challenging, but always exciting as sometimes just the tiniest bit of wool, either added or taken away, can make a huge difference in the essence of a piece. It was an honor for me to become a member of the Southern Highland Craft Guild in 2015.
I love the natural world, and am inspired daily by the beauty of these Great Smoky Mountains where I live. The changing of seasons, skies and weather are a constant source for my creativity. Each of my felted landscapes is totally unique and made entirely by hand, using pure wool primarily from Merino, Norwegian Pelsull, Romney and Corriedale sheep, with tussah silk, wool nepps and other natural fibers sometimes added as well.
I feel that my painting background helps me to add depth and dimension to my work, and I am constantly pushing the boundaries of what I can create in this unusual medium. I hope that viewers can sense my love of nature through my work.