Location: United States
Tracy Miller was obsessed from a young age with art, horses and the wide ope spaces of the West from a young age. After earning her Bachelor's degree in Art, Tracy spent several years learning the art gallery business by selling other noted artist's works, then started her own full time painting career after moving to Colorado Springs in 1994. Her favorite subject matter and best sellers are her horse paintings and she also loves to paint the wildlife and symbols of the Western United States. In the last two years she has added pet portraits to her repertoire after much demand and request from collectors. The popularity of her dog paintings has also drawn attention from the publishing world and her prints are now sold in Home Goods, TJ Maxx and other retailers around the world.
In 2011 she opened Tracy Miller Gallery, located in the charming town of Manitou Springs, where she also represents other artists of the "New West." Tracy was recently selected, along with 110 other artists for a new North Light Book, Acrylic Works-The Best of Acrylic Painters. The book was released in March 2014.
Tracy has participated in prestigious shows and invitational's such as The Mountain Oyster Club Art Show and Sale, Western Spirit at the Cheyenne Frontier Days Old West Museum, Representing the West at the Sangre de Cristo Arts Center, Plein Air Fest at the National Museum of Wildlife Art and Icons of the West at Dana Gallery in Montana.
Corporate collections are also starting to happen with Newmont Mining Company, CampoRico Brazil and Children's Hospital of Denver all adding her work to their environments.
Tracy has turned a lifetime obsession with creating art and a love of animals into a career where she strives to capture the essence and spirit of the animals she paints through bold brushwork, color and strategic use of negative space.
"My paintings are done in bold brushstrokes and highly charged colors. My work starts as pure abstract expressionism, integrating emotion and movement through color and shape. The animal reveals itself to me in the process of applying paint. I then refine the details that make the animal immediately recognizable, capturing it's essence and spirit."
I love to paint the American Bison, there is no other animal on the continent with the power and life giving force of this great and iconic beast.
I took the photo of this big guy on a hillside overlooking the Snake River, he was the leader of the herd, bellowing and snorting and turning to see if his charges were keeping up, then the erd of at least 200 stoped traffic on the road and crossed over to the Eastern side of the Gros Ventre.
Tatanka is the native word for Bison. I love how this pose shows off the powerful shoulders of this creature, fully capable of tossing a grown man high up in the air!
This painting was the offical poster art for the 2017 One Nation Walking Film Festival. Aptly titled as the bison provided so many essential needs for the great plains Indians.
I grew up horse obsessed! Finally at the age of 10 my dreams were realized wheb my parent bought Sunny, a 12 year old quarter horse gelding. I loved that horse until I started college and he was too old to ride anymore. In the beginning as a young artist I only drew horses, until years later when I had to start drawing and painting more subject mater in school.
This is such a typical look on a horse I had to paint and crop in a way that you just focus in on that eye!
What could be capturing their attention? Horses are pack anmals for sure and once one of them finds something of interest it usually attracts others.
Flying mane, this horse experiences freedon on the run. I love the song Wildfire by Michael Martin Murphy and it inspired the title.
“Commander”
“Tatanka”
“Provider”
“Curious”
“Tres Bellezas”
“Wildfire”
