SMETHPORT — Smethport artist Julie Mader’s painting entitled “Summertime” has won WPSU-FM’s fifth annual “Art for the Airwaves” poster print competition at the radio station in State College.

An outreach of The Pennsylvania State University, WPSU-FM broadcasts educational and commercial-free programming of the Public Broadcasting Corporation and National Public Radio that has popularity with several generations of listeners.

“Summertime,” an acrylic painting inspired by one of Mader’s own photographs, shows two young girls, Mader’s daughter, Emma, and her friend, Anna Nelson, when they were about 4 or 5 years old and wading in Potato Creek, near Nelson’s home.

Three hundred high resolution copies of the signed and limited edition poster will be offered to contributors of $100 during the station’s spring fundraiser that ends tonight. Mader plans to be in State College on Tuesday to sign the posters, which will be mailed to the contributors.

Mader is primarily a self-taught artist, although she did study drawing briefly while attending Millersville University of Pennsylvania. She began drawing seriously in 1999, focusing on pen and ink; five years later she moved to watercolors. It wasn’t until about seven years ago, though, that she started painting with acrylics, one of the most widely used mediums for artists, because they are fast-drying and can be mixed with water, gels and pastes to create a variety of different textures and finished appearances.

“I like acrylics and have had a lot of fun with them because you can have so many different textures,” Mader said. “In fact, ‘Summertime’ has quite a bit of textures.”

Submissions for the poster print contest could be paintings, collages, mixed media or two-dimensional art, but they had to focus on life in Pennsylvania.

“When I read the requirements, I went through thousands of pictures in my computer that I use for reference to see which ones said ‘Pennsylvania’ to me,” Mader told The Era. “I kept coming back to that picture of Emma and Anna wading in the creek, and it reminded me of growing up in southern Pennsylvania and also spending summers wading in creeks.”

Mader described the process she followed for the painting, which was done on a stretched canvas.

Using the photograph as a guide, she used modeling paste, which was applied to the canvas first to create a texture.

“When I put the paint on,” Mader added, “I actually used an old credit card, dabbed it into the paint and then scraped it down and across the canvas in order to produce the background and add more texture. Yet more texture was created by using some stenciling.”

At WPSU-FM, a panel of five judges chose “Summertime” as the competition’s overall winner. The painting can be viewed online at wpsu.org

For a year, the picture and WPSU-FM’s interview with Mader can be viewed on the station’s webpage.

Locally and throughout the region, Mader is well-known for her artwork. Last year, her traveling art exhibit, “Power Within,” featuring seven plants that produce cancer fighting ingredients used in chemotherapy treatments, opened and was seen at various locations in McKean, Cameron, Elk and Jefferson counties.

Additionally, she has produced works for the McKean County Fair and postage cancellations and designed the logo for the Smethport Sesquicentennial that appeared on printed material, dishes and shirts.

Mader also maintains an active teaching schedule, offering classes in various mediums for adults and children.

Noteworthy among the children’s art camps that return for the fourth year at Smethport’s Hamlin Memorial Library is the “Big Messy Art Camp for Little Messy People,” that was held last year. Popular activities at the camp for 3-6-year-olds, included an easy version of printmaking using golf balls and fly swatters.

All of her classes that have been held at Hamlin Memorial Library received partial grants from the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts.

A Pennsylvania Wilds artist since 2008 when this designation was initiated, Mader also has had art work accepted for solo shows in Warren and Wellsville, N.Y.

Several of her works have been shown at the show held in alternate years and sponsored by the Cattaraugus County (N.Y.) Arts Council. This is a juried show, meaning that her works were accepted for this exhibit and judged by a knowledgeable panel based mainly on skill, medium and creativity.

Though most of her subjects are from nature, Mader also enjoys painting landscapes and infant portraits “with soft and gentle images.”