The Bush Years

Schmertzler usually works ala-prima ... paint directly applied on the surface without underdrawings. Often, but not always, he draws studies before he starts. The underpinnings of all of the paintings are very lose and gestural figures splashed on with colorful and wet acrylic paint in a "reckless" manner to create mood and accidents from which to work. He incorporates historical artist's motifs to choreograph, design, structure, or mood of a current political-social theme and to give it a spin.