My current series began after seeing some free-range chickens enjoying themselves in the garden of a downtown home. No fences and free tomatoes. These chickens had more freedom than today's children.
What was it like to be a girl when time was clocked by jump rope chants--and coming home before the street lights came on? When distance was measured by how many miles you could pump your bike--before the street lights came on?
My paintings are populated by free-range children in a world where color is arbitrary, gravity is suspended, and my thought processes are free-ranging.
I've created them for you--adult children.
Biography
Tregay's freedom in art comes from experience. After years of realistic painting in watercolor, she spent another year writing a book on her expertise, then put the medium and her realism aside in order to charge into her imagination. Freedom also came in the form of a grant from the North Carolina Arts Council to build a ventilation system for her studio, allowing her to choose whatever medium the painting is "calling" for.
Freedom comes from knowledge. Her painting career began in Buffalo, New York, where abstract painting ruled and content was its secret ingredient. In Illinois years later, she spent weekends roaming Chicago's contemporary art galleries and the Art Institute of Chicago where she absorbed the new innovations that were emerging in painting. These lessons are the foundation for her newest work.Then moving to Hendersonville, NC, Tregay realized her affinity for folk art and the self-assured creativity that these artists possess. Her creativity, imagination and expertise has found a home.
Tregay is a nationally recognized artist, participating in international exhibitions, and recently winning two awards from the American Watercolor Society. She has also recently won awards from the Society of Acrylic Painters, Watercolor USA and the Miami Watercolor Society. Her acrylics were exhibited in solo museum shows at the Hickory Art Museum, NC, 2012, and the Turchin Center for the Arts, Boone, NC, 2013-14, The Academy for the Arts in Lynchburg, VA. She is represented by Tyler White O'Brien Gallery, Greensboro, NC, the Red Wolf Gallery in Brevard, NC, Art Mob in Hendersonville, NC, and Art Dialogue, Buffalo, NY. 38 Corporations have her paintings in their collections.
She is a signature member of the American Watercolor Society, the National Watercolor Society and the Transparent Watercolor Society of America, and the Honor Society of Watercolor USA in Springfield MO. She teaches workshops around the country. Tregay is the author many articles and the book and DVD, Master Disaster: Five Ways to Rescue Desperate Watercolors [North Light Publishers, 2007]. Her Free-Range Children series is featured at this web site. You can also check out her painting archives at www.tregay.com.Resume--click here