RANCHO CORDOVA, CA (MPG) – “The Art of Essence” will allow you to look at something and just notice the overall shapes, colors and lines of a simple object or scene and abstract the essence of that object,” said the Cordova Community Council website description of the 56th Art at City Hall show. The show began on July 27.

The winners for this show are: Best of Show Michael Fritschi, First Place Skip Lee, Second Place Ron Hall and Third Place Lucille van Ommering. Three Honorable Mentions were given: Elaine Schaefer-Hudson, Carrie Markel and Cherie Hacker.

Axel Scott-Kirby led the youth, earning First Place. Elijah Reno took Second Place and Ezekiel Reno Third Place.

Axel Scott-Kirby won First Place in the Youth division for his painting titledCrazy Grazing Cow. Photo by Rick Sloan

Nine-year-old Axel has been painting watercolors for four or five years. His grandmother, Michelle Scott, is also a local artist. About his first-place watercolor, “Crazy Grazing Cow,” Axel said, “I just put big and small shapes everywhere and it just became a rooster and a cow.” He said that his favorite thing about the painting is, “The cow looks traumatized.”

Fritschi, born and raised in Placerville, California, said that his Best of Show painting, Loreto Mexico, was a demonstration painting that he did for the Amador Arts Association.

“It was completed in one hour, because that’s all the time I had. That’s why it looks so nice, because I didn’t ruin it by painting longer,” said Fritschi.

Michael Fritschi won Best of show for his work, Loreto Mexico. Photo by Rick Sloan

He doodled all his life but has been doing more serious art for about three years.

“I think that sometimes if you limit the amount of time that you have to paint something, you start to get a real economy of technique and it just stays more alive,” Fritschi said.

Lee said that his First Place painting, “Construction Site,” happened because while on his way to the Crocker in Sacramento, “I ended up in front of a construction site that had a barricade around it and I kind of poked my head through the barricade or between the slats . . . and I see all this stuff going on: rebar, concrete, hard hats, stuff moving and machinery lifting and hauling stuff.”  He thought, “I’ve got to do a painting of this, in an abstract situation.”

Hall said that his Second-Place work, created in acrylic and titled “Remember Their Voices,” was politically motivated.

Ron Hall entered three artworks, and this one, Remember Their Voices, earned Second Place. Photo by Rick Sloan

“I think it’s really important that we don’t forget the people who protest for human rights, the people just trying to live; and it’s just kind of a statement piece of, don’t forget those that passed away with the injustice that has been, and is, going on currently,” Hall said.

He has three pieces in this show. He finds it hard to predict which of his entries might win a prize.

Van Ommering’s painting, “Sanctuary in Planes,” shows the back of the San Francisco de Asis Mission Church in Taos, New Mexico.

Artist Lucille van Ommering says of her painting Sanctuary in Planes, “The monochrome treatment removes local color and makes the geometry the subject. Photo by Rick Sloan

“From the front, it looks like a church, but . . . strangely enough, the back actually faces the street . . . That is, when you pass by it on the main road to Taos, that’s what you see. If you’re not looking for it you go right past it,” said Van Ommering.

She said that Georgia O’Keefe did her famous picture of it from that angle.

The Art of Essence will run through Oct. 23 at Rancho Cordova City Hall, 2729 Prospect Park Drive, Rancho Cordova. City Hall’s open hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Elaine Schaefer-Hudson received an Honorable Mention for her artwork featuring cheese. Photo by Rick Sloan