Swift & Sure: Capturing the Scene Quickly
Noted for her cityscapes, Nancie King Mertz works quickly whether she’s on-site or in the studio—but she always captures the essence of the scene.
As seen in Artists Magazine, July/August 2019. Subscribe now so you don’t miss any great art instruction, inspiration, and articles like this one.
In her travels to nearly 20 countries, Nancie King Mertz has found abundant inspiration for her urbanscapes, but her hometown of Chicago remains her favorite city to paint and explore. It’s also the city that has twice named her Artist of the Year. Mertz, who teaches painting in workshops across the country and in the video Nancie King Mertz: Urban Pastel Painting (Liliedahl), discusses her work in the following interview:
Kelly Powers (KP): You paint both en plein air and in the studio. Does your planning differ for these two approaches?
Nancie King Mertz (NKM): While the process for the two approaches is similar, the prepainting thinking is different. With a studio painting, I’m working from a 4×6 photo reference that’s often of poor quality but has an element that inspires me—such as an unusual angle, compelling shadow shapes or an interesting composition. I’ll look at that photo many times to let it “cook” in my brain before I begin painting. Once I feel I know how to modify and push the reference, I’ll start the painting and complete it within a few hours.
For my plein air work, I’m usually in new surroundings and looking for interesting light or color that I feel will translate well into a painting. I’m racing the clock as the sun moves, so decisions are immediate and definite as I aim to complete the painting within two hours.
“I’VE FOUND THAT WORK DONE QUICKLY IS USUALLY MORE FRESH
—NANCIE KING MERTZ
AND INSPIRED THAN WORK THAT HAS BEEN LABORED OVER.”
KP: Walk us through your painting process. How does an idea transition from out-in-the-world to a completed painting?
NKM: Nearly all of my paintings begin with a “tick-mark map”—the initial charcoal notes I make on the surface to include all the desired elements in the composition. This quick map helps me get the correct perspective and the right scale before I begin adding pigment. Often when artists just start right in painting, they run off the surface, omitting some of the elements that are key to the composition. My map helps me avoid this blunder.
From the quick map, I begin to place all the darks throughout the piece. For pastels, I lightly wash in these darks with denatured alcohol and a fan brush. For oils, I scrub them in with turpentine. Whether working in oil or pastel, it’s important to keep the initial darks transparent, which makes them appear much richer.
Throughout the process I keep the hoped-for outcome in my mind, striving to make the painting match my vision—either improving my poor photo or capturing the scene as it inspired me when I first set up my gear on site. That image pushes me forward to rapid completion. (See Start to Finish, below.)
Start to Finish
Whether working in oil or pastel, Mertz’s process is the same. First, she draws a charcoal tick-mark map on her painting surface to establish the composition. She then sets the darks, washing them in with denatured alcohol for pastel or scrubbing them in with turpentine for oil. From that point, she develops the mid-tones and lights, as seen in the remaining progressive images of Come From Away (pastel on mounted board, 241/2×281/2).
KP: Pastel artists, especially, seem to have unlimited color options with no need for mixing. How do you pare the number of colors you use in a painting?
NKM: I work in both pastel and oil, but over the years I’ve found that the ease of pastel setup and transport, and the rapid results have made it my favored medium for plein air work. In my small studio, I have both an oil and a pastel area, and I tend to do most of my oils in the studio now.
I feel it’s important to have pastels within easy reach, especially when painting on site, so I have my two, 80-piece Signature Richeson sets (Atmospheric Landscape and Urban) at waist height so that I can see and grab what I need. The pastels I use for each piece are tipped up in the box or placed to the side so I can locate them without searching. This speeds up the process and keeps the colors cohesive.
Students often have boxes scattered all around them on the ground. They spend valuable time searching in each box for just the right color. I encourage all pastelists to combine their sets and brands into one convenient palette box—and remove the paper labels.
KP: What decisions do you make about color before you begin a painting? Do you paint the colors you see or do you have
a separate color plan in mind?
NKM: I always say that I paint what I see, but I do push the color and make value decisions to push structures and elements into the distance. When painting an urban scene, I often determine the warm sunlit side and balance it with a complementary cool side (see Chicago Down Low, above).
KP: Where and how does color mixing happen in pastel painting? If an artist comes from a watercolor background, how does his or her thinking about color need to adjust?
NKM: Mixing color in pastel happens as the pigment is layered, one hue over another, much like dry-brushing over an underlying color in oil. When out painting, I’m always giving my “pastel lecture” when viewers walk up and say, “Ohhh, chalk!” I explain that the medium is, in fact, pastel, the purest pigment form—the same pigment in oil paint but in a dry, pure stick form. And then they usually say, “Like chalk, right?” and I go on to explain the difference, saying that chalk is limestone and dye rather than pure pigment and that the painting process is similar to that of oils, in that the artist works from dark to light in both.
This approach is opposite from watercolor painting. Watercolorists build up from light to dark and have to wait for layers to dry. I’m not that patient!
KP: Whether working on location or with a reference photo, artists contend with a lot of details—too many to include in a painting. Deciding what to put in and what to take out—or what to leave sharp and what to soften—can be tough for artists of all skill levels. What advice would you give?
NKM: Learning to edit detail is a skill that comes with the experience of completing hundreds of paintings. Even those painters who work in a photorealistic style have learned to leave out elements that are unimportant to their design.
If something in your scene or photo is distracting or draws attention away from your focal point, simply omit it or shift the color or value to merely suggest that it’s there—to make it a secondary element. (See Divergent, above)
Study the work of artists you admire and determine how they’ve simplified details and softened edges. Our eyes see hard edges only where we focus, and perimeters are soft or fuzzy. Keep this in mind when composing your painting, and guide the eye where you want it to go. (See Open Table, below.)
KP: What principles or elements excite you most in your work?
NKM: As an urban plein air painter, I get excited about structures that crisscross overhead. I call them “calligraphy in the sky,” and I love to paint the equally important negative spaces, as they help to carve out the positive. Usually, those overhead structures create interesting ground shadows that balance the design and add energy to the piece. (See Sun Tracks, below.)
When painting landscapes, I enjoy applying warm/cool principles that are similar to those I use in my urban painting. They can add more interest to an otherwise predominantly green scene. (See The English, above.)
KP: You finish about 150 paintings a year and, in your workshops, encourage students to finish one or two paintings per day. Why do you think it’s important to work fast?
NKM: When I’m painting, I feel the fire in my belly and am excited about the process, the image and the prospect of achieving or exceeding the image in my brain. It’s my hope that this energy transfers to my demos, my work and, most importantly, to my students, helping them get fired up about their work.
In the many years I’ve been a painter, I’ve found that work done quickly is usually more fresh and inspired than work that has been labored over. I do stress, however, that it’s most important to know how to draw before learning to paint. Incorrect drawing can’t be hidden by color and value.
KP: At what point could you tell you’d transitioned from a beginner to an intermediate painter—and then from an intermediate to an advanced painter? What has helped you grow?
NKM: I began painting as a child and enrolled in extension painting classes from the University of Illinois while I was in high school. I went on to get a BFA from that university as a figure painter and began my masters in painting at Eastern Illinois University soon after, where I focused on foliage painting. I also taught there for three years. I suppose my intermediate years were during university training and, once I’d finished that, the advanced painter years began.
I began a gallery and frame shop in 1979, while I was in college and, with the help of my husband, have continued along that path all these years. That business, now known as Art De Triumph & Artful Framer Studios, in Chicago, is still going strong. It’s supported by a wonderful daily staff, which has allowed me to add travel teaching to my schedule. The teaching has helped me grow as a painter as I work with eager students, and it allows me to see inspiring new places for painting.
KP: What is one thing an artist could start doing every day that would improve his or her art in the next year?
NKM: Draw, draw, draw! Knowledge of perspective is important, whether you’re drawing structures, figures or landscapes.
About the Author
Kelly Powers is an artist and an editor at Creative Catalyst Productions.
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