Tracey Costescu Fine Art

Reverie - 16x20" Acrylic on Gallery Wrapped Canvas - $800 My painting, Reverie, was accepted into the Artist's Choice Exhibit at the Federation Gallery on Granville Island.  The show is on until February 17, 2019 and I am heading down tomorrow after life drawing at Basic Inquiry to check out the show.  Many great pieces i am looking forward to seeing offline!

Thanks to my buddy, Caroline , for taking photos of my drawing which is currently on display in the Works on Paper Exhibition at the Federation Gallery on Granville Island.  The show is on until February 3, I hope to make it out before the show ends, there are lots of great pieces on display!

Pan Pastel on Newsprint Why have I not played with Pan Pastels and newsprint before, SO much fun! I could not sleep so figured I would do a quick sketch as did not feel like having to clean brushes at 1am.  So I pulled out some old newsprint that I had forgotten I even had.  Ugh...still not tired....I think tomorrow is going to be a loooong day!

Life Drawing at Basic Inquiry - Lawrence  It is that time of year when I used to make resolutions, most of of which died off by mid February.  So this year I am choosing to set "goals" rather than "resolutions".  To make it even easier, I am setting goals that I actually want to do and that are near impossible not to achieve!  I have missed life drawing over the past couple of years so this of course is top on my list.  To make the time and commit to life drawing once a week, either from a live model or from an object in my studio or outside.  Did I mention I am also setting the goals near impossible not to achieve them?  I actually am doing this for good reason.  I used to set such optimistic goals that I was destined to not achieve them as, let's face it, life gets busy in a hurry.  With age comes wrinkles..I mean wisdom... and I have realized if I set my goals to be so low that I would feel ridiculous not achieving them, that I a...

Materials & Still Life Set Up Just a quick thank you to all the artists who came out to my Still Life Demo at Opus Coquitlam!  It was great to see so many artists interested in learning about the different methods of painting with respect to style, method and using less toxic, more environmentally friendly practice. I especially want to thank the Opus Staff for making me feel so at home. They are always super friendly, helpful and supportive.  It is so great to see staff that are truly are as inspired (dare I say addicted...) to art as much as I am who are really helping to create a community atmosphere for artists in Coquitlam.

This year I am offering an online studio sale of some of my smaller works.  Prices include shipping (in North America) and taxes.  Secure payment is set up through PayPal.   Upon receipt of your order, you will receive a confirmation email from me along with the expected arrival time of your artwork, which depending on location is roughly 7 - 10 business days.   Happy holidays!   Blue Vase with Flowers  8x10" Oil Painting Dried Flowers 8x10" Oil Painting Blue Vase with Skull 8x10" Oil Painting Flower 8x10" Oil Painting Seashell  8x10" Oil Painting includes shipping Rose Duo  8x10" Oil Painting includes shipping Figure  12x12" Acrylic Painting Portrait  8x10" Oil Painting

Join me for a free demo at Coquitlam's Opus Art Store on November 18.  Creating a still life starts long before the brush hits the canvas.  We will start with tips on how to set up and light your still life, choosing materials and discuss various processes that can be employed to paint without solvents. We will also cover the different methods of painting a still life, Alla Prima (direct) vs Classical (indirect).  Examples of each method will be shown at various stages which will hopefully will inspire you to paint a still life the way that suits you best. Space is limited and registration is required. Please visit Opus Coquitlam or contact them at 604‑545‑0410 to register. https://opusartsupplies.com/how/demos/art-still-life-non-toxic-oils

Graphite Portrait on Toned Paper - 6x9" Well I finally did it, I finally made it down to check out Basic Inquiry Life Drawing in Vancouver.  Why did it take me so long??!?!? I usually go to Suite E Life Drawing in Coquitlam but I have been so busy with teaching at nights that I only made it to a few sessions this season so I was desperate to get some life drawing in...and I was not disappointed :) The set up was really nice as they have a curtain that hangs from the ceiling with the lighting enclosed which can be directed on the model.  Then the outside of the curtain area hey have florescent lighting so that there is good lighting on the easels...which is kind of important ;) Room Set Up The model was lovely and was so enjoyable to draw.  The session is 3 hrs but with breaks works out to about 2.5 hrs and I draw sooo slooooww.  So I had hoped to get more darks in on the left side of her face and then add some lights with white chalk and if time permitt...

Oil Painting from Life - Stephanie What a perfect way to start off the summer...start summer in June and start it with a 10 day workshop with Giorgio Dante! I am so fortunate to have another opportunity to study with yet another amazing artist and instructor. Not to toot my own horn, but I am really proud of my painting :)  I rarely do figures and I have not had nearly as much practice this year as I had hoped working from live models whether it be drawing or in oil.  Something I plan to correct this season ;)  Our model was Stephanie, a model that I often book for our Suite E Life Drawing sessions so it was nice to see a familiar face even though I did not paint it ;) The workshop was 10 full days and we spent the first two days working on a drawing which I will have to post later as I need to get a photo of it.  The drawing was smaller and included the full body and face. It was a great way to get warmed up and get familiar with the model as well as the lig...

I was so fortunate to get to go to a 2 day workshop this past Mother's Day weekend in North Vancouver with the wonderful Deborah Tilby.  While I was unable to complete either painting, I got a TON of work done.  Alla prima painting is so much faster than indirect painting.  It definitely gets the adrenaline running as you know at the workshops, just like when plein air painting, you only have so much time to get things done! The landscape painting was done on the first day and really all I think it needed is to push the dark and light values further.  I always struggle with this and seem to have to keep pushing as I go to get the full value range.  I also think the barn could use a bit of fixing up, maybe a window or two? The seascape was done on the second day, I was SO sick :(  I spent the morning painting and actually considered packing up and going home after an hour.  I felt so ill...hot...cold....dizzy...nausea....Happy Mother's Day to me!...

It has been months since I have been able to get to a life drawing session (sigh) so it was so nice to get back to drawing from a live model last night!  Sadly I have not had much time for drawing anything lately as have been busy painting.  Drawing is like exercise, if you don't do it daily or at least regularly you get flabby....or in this case, not so accurate ;) So rather than crop the drawing as I usually do...I left some distracting objects all around the portrait.  Sneaky right?  Even with my lack of current practice though, I still see a huge improvement from last year in my drawing skills so just like with exercise, there is "muscle memory" so every little bit of effort adds up.

Rough Oil Sketch by Student - 8x10" So proud of my student this morning who attempted her first oil sketch in preparation for her landscape painting...and she hit it out of the park!  We did a rough sketch using Burnt Sienna thinned down with Gamsol odorless mineral spirits. I love this stage of a painting as things fall into place so quickly and it is just so satisfying to see everything come together so quickly. Look at that focus and how she is holding the brush way, way back....makes me very happy :)

Oil Leaf Study This is a little study I did over the summer of some leaves I found on a hike up Simon Fraser Mountain.  The tree was full of these beautiful shiny leaves, I had to paint it. I did not have my paints with me and my hiking partner (aka hubby) would not have been impressed if I had and I could not fit the tree in my trunk so a bunch of branches had to do.  The leaves are so much more chromatic than I objects I usually paint so I thought they would be fun to work with and I was right.  If you are interested in learning to paint alla prima, join me Monday nights or Mondays during the date for watercolor lessons at the Port Moody Arts Centre.  You can register online at Port Moody Arts Center Online Link or call 604-931-2008 to register. Into the Blue - Detail Watercolor on Arches Paper

Oil on Canvas Board and Set Up I am so fortunate to have had the opportunity to take another workshop with the amazing, talented, generous, patient...I could go on, Graydon Parrish . This is the third time I have had the opportunity to take one of his workshops (see Workshop 1 and Workshop 2 for more info) and every time I am amazed at how much I learn yet how relaxed and fun the process is.  When I learn on my own, it is more like a battle of wills and frustration and as I tend to learn by realizing what not to do....and then learning by the process. The workshop was two weeks long during which time Graydon walked us through setting up the still life which he set up as a work of art in itself.  He showed us how to determine the colors of the fabric and how the light affects the hue, value and chroma.  He had us paint half a sphere and cube with the local color to better understand what we were seeing.  We then mixed the color strings we needed by matching the...

Well, that was fun, well fun like a long workout is when you are done ;) It definitely helps to have good music when paint mixing as sometimes it can seem like it can take forever to get the exact mix you are looking for.  It is so worth it though as there is nothing better than having all of your paint premixed in clean little tubes so that you can squish out fresh paint every time you paint.   I have thought of mixing while sipping a glass wine or martini but I am sure I would end up with very sub par mixes ;) I don't premix all my colors but I find it so helpful to premix a flesh palette as I may not get the chance to paint every day, especially in the summer, and there is nothing worse than mixing up your paint and then having to through it all out because it did not keep between sessions.  Also, as some days I only have an hour to two to paint and if I have all of my colors premixed, I get to spend almost all of the time painting rather than g...