About Me

Tracey Ward woke up one day in her 40th year absolutely convinced that she could sculpt. She had always drawn and painted but her only experience of sculpting was making a clay dolphin, at school, when she was 12 years old. She liked the end product but positively hated the feeling of clay. So, she set out to find a different way to sculpt.

The way she found was courtesy of Hilary Archer, a wood and stone carver in Hampshire. Hilary showed her the basics, declared her a natural, and let her use her carving studio every weekend for almost two years. From there Tracey went on to optain a first class degree at Portsmouth University, specialising in stone carving and specialist paint effects. 

A love of animals and nature inspires Tracey’s work. She especially loves the creatures of the British Isles – foxes, owls, hedgehogs, otters and anything she can bump into on a walk. Form, symmetry, sweeping lines and the feel of the piece are the most important aspects of the work for Tracey. Her pieces are almost always sleek, stylised and stroke-able.

 If you see Tracey work you will notice that she spends as much time running her hands around the stone as she does looking at it, because feeling enables her to “see” in a different way and is more accurate for her to establish symmetry. When it feels and looks right, her work on that piece is done.

In 2024 Tracey decided  to take her artwork more seriously and to "get it out there".  She visited galleries and shows to see where her art would fit and then took the plunge and applied. Then she panicked because she had all these deadlines and little work to show. With some discipline and a lot of support from arty friends, her wife, and dog, Tracey made enough new pieces to exhibit around Hampshire. 

Then, in typical fashion, she decided that she would explore new media and painted "Martin's Leaf", her first painting for decades. And it sold on it's first outing! There is a chance more paintings may follow, watch this space....

She also found a clay that she didn't hate the feeling of. It is called Monster Clay and there will be a number of new pieces coming in Winter 24 that started as Monster Clay pieces which were then cast into plaster, remodelled, carved a bit, and stylised, before casting again into Jesmonite. A long process, but one that enables quicker initial creation than carving from a block.  

2025 is around the corner and giving lessons will be a main focus as well as getting the work out further afield. Exciting!