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Free Art Friday comes to Bishop's Stortford




Animal portrait specialist Tracey Pinnington is backed Free Art Friday
Animal portrait specialist Tracey Pinnington is backed Free Art Friday

A tiger safari with a twist is taking place in Bishop's Stortford this week, thanks to animal portrait specialist Tracey Pinnington.

Animal portrait specialist Tracey Pinnington is backed Free Art Friday
Animal portrait specialist Tracey Pinnington is backed Free Art Friday

As part of the Free Art Friday project, the 42-year-old wildlife painter will be concealing a small, mounted print of her acclaimed big cat study “Fierce tranquility” somewhere in the town on October 6.

A clue for treasure hunters will be revealed on her Facebook page, Instagram and Twitter accounts.

She explained: “Free Art Friday is not an original concept, and artists from all over the world have joined in creating and leaving art in the streets for free, it doesn’t even have to be a painting, it could be a sculpture, a poem, origami - anything creative!

“The organised Free Art Friday movement was born in England, but nobody owns it and you don’t have to be an artist to take part, even children can get involved.

Animal portrait specialist Tracey Pinnington is backed Free Art Friday
Animal portrait specialist Tracey Pinnington is backed Free Art Friday

“You may come across this hidden art somewhere totally random where you wouldn’t usually see art. It could be on a shop front, propped up against a sign, hidden in the forest or perhaps sitting on a bench! They should have a tag saying ‘Free Art, Take me home’ or something similar attached.

“Clues to the location of artworks are sometimes left on social media to combine treasure hunting with art. It gets people talking about the artist, their work and hopefully brightens someone’s day when they discover it by accident or by actively searching for it.”

Born in Hertford, Tracey went to Presdales School in Ware and then went on to study graphic design and visual communication design at Hertford Regional College.

She said: “The course included illustration, print and photography and it was during an illustration lesson that I was introduced to the photo-realistic style of drawing and fell in love with coloured pencils.”

Animal portrait specialist Tracey Pinnington is backed Free Art Friday
Animal portrait specialist Tracey Pinnington is backed Free Art Friday

She also met her husband, Martin, at college. They married him in 2000 and the couple moved to Bishop’s Stortford. They now have two children, Adam, 14, and 12-year-old Abbie who “both love art just as much as us”.

It was the birth of Adam which prompted Tracey to give up her career as a graphic designer and focus on her art.

She predominately works in artist grade professional coloured pencils, a medium slowly gaining more recognition and popularity in the art world, to make her pieces highly detailed but also creates also creates beautiful, bright paintings using ink.

Tracey said she strives to bring her subjects to life through capturing as much emotion and character as possible.

Animal portrait specialist Tracey Pinnington is backed Free Art Friday
Animal portrait specialist Tracey Pinnington is backed Free Art Friday

Her works have now won worldwide recognition attracting collectors from as far away as Australia and the United States and she has a long waiting list for commissioned pieces.

In 2016, she won Grove Cottage’s Animal Magic competition with her zebra drawing titled “Out of the shadows” and prints were auctioned by Sworders, of Stansted, along with other winning art work and photography to help raise money for the charity. “Out of the shadows” then went on to receive a special merit award in the online competition held by Light Space & Time. Since “Out of the shadows” was created she has completed a sister piece to accompany it. It is another zebra in a similar style titled “Into the light”. She hopes to have just as much success with it in future competitions.

Tracey’s work has been published in art magazines and featured in two books - “Coloured pencil cat & dogs” and “Hidden Treasures Vol 3”, both published by Ann Kullberg. She has recently written a step by step tutorial for a coloured pencil magazine which is due out in November and a small selection of her work will be on display and for sale at the Artwall exhibition held in Ashwell & Barrie optometrists in North Street throughout November.

“Fierce tranquillity” was highly commended in the Grove Cottage competition and if you are lucky enough to discover the hidden print of it, Tracey asks the treasure hunt winner to upload a photo of themselves with their lucky find to social media, tagging one of Tracey’s social media accounts and using the hashtag #Freeartfriday. Instructions on what to do after finding the treasure will be left along with the artwork. Here are the links to Tracey’s social media accounts:

Animal portrait specialist Tracey Pinnington is backed Free Art Friday
Animal portrait specialist Tracey Pinnington is backed Free Art Friday

Facebook - @T.PinningtonFineArt

Instagram - @traceyp_art

Twitter - @traceyp075

Email - tracey@pinningtons.plus.com



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