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Jan. 22--TARPON SPRINGS -- She enjoys drawing a squadron of pelicans flying in jagged formation, little girls building sand castles and couples savoring a view of the Gulf of Mexico from their sandy perch.
"I'm known as the person who does people on the beach," said Melissa Miller Nece, a Palm Harbor colored-pencil artist and teacher.
Five of her creations, which were drawn from digital photos, are among the highlights at the 32nd Annual International Miniature Art Show running through Feb. 4 at the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art at St. Petersburg College.
Nece's "Girls in Pink" was awarded first place in drawing and pastels by show judge Neil Adamson. It was drawn from a photo taken at Fort De Soto Beach of girls dressed in pink, one digging in sand and the other walking where the surf meets beach.
"Busy Builders," also on display at the show, features young sand castle creators. The swirling of the water and whitecaps in the background can evoke the sounds of gently crashing waves in your mind, tying into Nece's artist mission statement:
"We observe, and in our memories we hear the steady rhythm of the waves, the screech of gulls, we smell the sunscreen and salt air, we feel the hot roughness of the sand."
In other words, the drawing takes you there.
Nece's drawings range in size from a 3-foot-by-8-foot commissioned portrait to a square miniature a little more than 2 inches per side. She said miniatures in the show, which includes 861 selected entries from 12 countries and 38 states, are required to be no more than 25 square inches.
"People ask me, 'Do you use a magnifying glass to draw?'" Nece said. "I usually don't. But I'm nearsighted and take off my glasses for the finest work."
She draws on Stonehenge paper, a 100 percent cotton rag paper used for print-making, and a French paper for pastels and miniatures. A portable lamp and electronic pencil sharpener are keys in providing proper lighting and a constant sharp tip to her pencils.
Nece periodically demonstrates her craft at the miniatures show. Jeanne Shepard of Belleair, who paints in acrylics and is a member of the Florida Gulf Coast Art Center, shook her head and smiled while viewing Nece's drawings.
She Blends Colors With An Eraser
"I am literally amazed by what she has," Shepard said. "I couldn't believe you could make it look so smooth with such fine pencils."
Nece grinned and pulled out her typewriter eraser to explain and demonstrate one of the tricks of her trade. She blended the colors together with the eraser for the proper look.
Nece, 54, a graduate of Lake Erie College, teaches classes in colored pencil, basic drawing and oil and acrylic painting at the Dunedin Fine Arts Center. Acrylic was her main medium until 1990.
"I bought a set of colored pencils with a gift certificate and I was hooked," Nece said. "Acrylics had tedious color shifts from wet to dry and pencils gave me great control and an infinite number of colors.
"It suited my style because I am inclined to details. Details are like a memory egg. The more detail you see, the more it makes you feel like you are there."
English Company Asked For Work
She now has 10 sets of colored pencils, more than 700 pencils in all. Nece is on the national board of the Colored Pencil Society of America, and in 2005 the Cumberland Pencil Co. of Keswick, England, commissioned her to draw two girls on a beach for an ad to promote their Derwent Signature Water Colour Pencils.
"I love to talk about colored pencils and promote them," she said. "I love making the drawings and I love teaching drawing. And I love selling art.
"People ask how I can bear to part with it. But I have to make a living, you know."
Some of her work in the miniatures show is sold, and some remains for sale at $300 or $325 apiece. She sells drawings at indoor shows across the state. Corporations have purchased her work, and her drawing of three Washingtonian palms with Christmas lights was selected as the poster for Clearwater's recent Festival of Trees.
"I always knew I would be an artist," Nece said. "My earliest memory -- my mom said I was 2 at the time -- was drawing with pencil or pen the family car. I put the Chevy logo on the hubcaps and visors, too."
Her eye for detail now focuses on making that summer beach sand feel rough and hot and making the waves crash in your mind.
MINIATURE ART SHOW
WHAT: A display of 861 miniature works in oil, acrylic, water colors, pencil drawing, print making, sculpture and scrimshaw.
WHEN: Through Feb. 4; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday.
WHERE: Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art at St. Petersburg College, 600 Klosterman Road, Tarpon Springs.
COST: $5 for adults, $4 for seniors and free for children, students with ID, museum and Miniature Art Society of Florida members. Admission is free on Sundays.
Reporter Steve Kornacki can be reached at (813) 731-8170.
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Copyright (c) 2007, Tampa Tribune, Fla.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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