Santa Fe, NM–Celebrated neoimpressionist Tracy Rocca uses walnut oils and alkyd to apply thin glazes of color, with each layer blending and obscuring color and detail into unspecified, but familiar settings. It was her frequent childhood commute that led to her soft-focused interpretations of landscape: Rocca realized that the faster she moved the more tranquil the roadside scenery appeared. Previously working from photographs of Seattle and the Southwest, exploring the world around her through highly saturated color, she now produces purely from her imagination; like in the haze of a pleasant dream, the particularity of place remains out of reach.

Rocca’s show of new work opens on November 7th with an artist’s reception from 5 – 7 p.m. and runs through December 7th. In her first solo exhibition at LewAllen Galleries, she explores a more painterly finish, loosening her previous constraints to blur all possible details; she reveals evidence of her own hand while still maintaining her smooth formal finish. In an attempt to achieve the introspection that will keep viewers in her paintings longer, he experiments with the shape and intensity of the tropically inspired colors surrounding the central light in her work.

Rocca enjoys painting for its therapeutic qualities. In a world brimming with instantaneous digital tools, she champions a slower, more contemplative painting process in an effort“to create a place where the mind can rest.” Reasserting the value of the human presence in art making, Rocca not only hand paints her canvases, but actually paints with her hands, using her fingertips to intuitively apply small additions of color and her palms to carefully blend before finishing with brushes. The trademark luminous glow that emerges at the center of her paintings behaves as a meditative focal point within a blurred array of dissolving colors and fleeting environmental comprehension, guiding the viewer to an introspective experience. Rocca continuously experiments with her work to find the most effective combination of outer elements to keep the viewer in the central light longer.

Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1974, Rocca moved frequently as a child, finally settling in Seattle to study advertising at the University of Washington. As a painter, she is largely self-taught. Since 2001, her work has been exhibited across the United States and has been featured in publications such as The New York Times.