this underpainting peek through in
places,” she says.
After making a few thumbnail
sketches and transferring the design
to her painting surface, she blocked
in the major elements with sticks
chosen from Dark Set No. 1 of Jack
Richeson Pastel Blocks. “I created a
virtually completed grisaille before I
ever started using any color,” she says.
“During this stage, I can really visual-
ize the composition.”
She continued by massing in the
darks and reserving the extremes of
value, saturation and edge sharpness
for the center of interest. She revis-
ited shadows and areas of reflected
light. “These are the things that can
really give your painting a ‘wow’ fac-
tor,” Howard says. “Even though the
shadows are dark, you can glaze light
colors over the darks to create a vibra-
tion of color.” Most of the painting
was done with Terry Ludwigs.
Landscape & Interior Category
Juror W. Truman Hosner says Navajo
Sandstone “instills the secret of how
to be quiet in a quiet place, while
showing the best qualities of the use
of abstract passages in a representa-
tional painting.”
SECOND PLACE
Nancie King Mertz
Illinois native Nancie King Mertz
(nanciekingmertz.com) loves to paint
old or unusual cars, so when she and
her husband explored an industrial
area on a trip to Palermo, Sicily, and
spotted a repair shop, she knew she’d
hit pay dirt. A blue car in the fore-
ground drew her eye and became the
focal point for Sicilian Auto Shop.
Although Mertz’s focus was paint-
ing on-site, she took two photos of
the shop and its cars. Once home,
she combined the photos into one
composition, employing one-point
perspective. “I’m totally old school,
using 4x6 photos printed at the
drugstore,” she says.
Moving to a sheet of UART 400
paper mounted to a backing board
with archival dry-mount tissue, Mertz
established what she calls a “tick mark
map.” Using vine charcoal, she marked
small reference points, or ticks, to
determine where the different ele-
ments, all pulled from several photos,
would go. This helped her check place-
ment as well as perspective.
Mertz likes to create a painting in
a single session to sustain energy and
freshness—a method she used for this
piece. Once satisfied with the design,
she quickly blocked in the painting
with dark pastel. “I used a variety of
darks to add richness to the under-
painting,” she says. “I adhere closely to
the local color, but I push the color to
make the painting more lively.”
After washing the block-in with
denatured alcohol and letting it dry,
Mertz moved to the mid-tones, sav-
ing the lights for last. “I always tellSicilian Auto Shop
(24x18) by Nancie
King Mertzstudents to slather on the lights,” she
says. “The lighter the pigment, the
heavier the application, much like
painting in oil.” In the field, she uses
her two signature sets of Richeson
pastels; in the studio, she supplements
them with Great American, Terry
Ludwig, Richeson and Sennelier.
“Camouflage is disruptive col-
oration, like that often seen when
dappled light falls on objects under
trees,” Hosner says. “This is a difficult
idea to pull off in a painting without
destroying the forms. Here we see a
similar dappling created by the light
from the skylights falling across the
steel roof onto the cars. Using great
skill to achieve this effect, the artist
handles the challenge in an unusu-
ally creative manner, reminding us
that art is everywhere.”ArtistsNetwork.com 53