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I spent the evening twilight hours on Mother’s Day sitting on our dock in 45mph winds, chilled to the bone, keeping my photographer son Ron company during a photo shoot.  It was absolutely fun watching him shoot professional photos of the resident muskrat.  He is really blessed, while he was photographing the muskrat a Common Loon made a rare appearance and swam within 10′ of the dock!  Nothing pleases me more as a mom than to share my life with my children, and to be included in their lives.  Ron’s wife, Janine, and my husband, Bob, stayed warm inside our house watching us with the spotting scope and chatted with us via walkie talkie.  They are the “support crew” for both of us and treasured, neither of us could excel in our chosen professions without their help.

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Gail Niebrugge, Alaska wildlife artist

“First Color” original watercolor and acrylic painting by Gail Niebrugge, sold.

I will never forget the first time I saw the wildflower Crocus. It was spring in our new house in Copper Center, Alaska. The front yard (forest) faced south with a sloping dirt bank down to the road. I was out inspecting the yard, tromping through snow, and discovered a snow-free spot on the south facing earthen embankment. It felt good to sit down and feel dirt again, after a bitterly cold winter, I relaxed and leaned back against a log and watched a Bald Eagle circle overhead. Summer was on the way! Rolling over I was startled to see a purple blossom about the shape of an egg, barely poking out of the ground! Searching the rest of the area I was elated to find a group of six of these wildflowers all together, and later learned that they were called Crocus. It became a ritual to visit that spot every spring and be greeted by the miracle of these hearty, wildflowers. They became my next focus of attention to study and paint.

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Gail Niebrugge, wildflower ar5t

“Fire in the Woodpile” original pen and ink and watercolor painting by Gail Niebrugge, sold.

The small kindling woodpile by the back door is almost invisible in the summer, smothered by tall weeds and swathed in fireweed. Stuff gets lost there, a bucket, a prize piece of wood, and things that are temporarily set on top then fall off. This wild spot at the back of the cabin is where I first learned about all of the stages of fireweed.

In the beginning I love the brilliant fuchsia-colored blooms that appear, then I begin to expect them to be there every day. They need no tending and last almost six weeks. After the blossoms fade long pods form, turn red, then split spewing a white fluffy cotton. It is a fascinating looking plant at this stage, surrounded by its rich green leaves. Within a few weeks the leaves progress from green to all shades of red and yellow, and the split pods shrivel brown, begin to curl, and tangle in the cottony down. Soon the air is full of white fuzz, fireweed seed sowed by the wind. And, the woodpile with its hidden treasure is exposed. Finally enough is enough, I quit watching and sat down on the ground with pen and ink and watercolor and painted “Fire in the Woodpile”.

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Gail Niebrugge, watercolor painting

“Fireweed IV” original watercolor painting by Gail Niebrugge, sold.

Back to my series on living and painting in the wilderness of the Wrangell-St. Elias, Alaska. This looks like fireweed laying on snow, but in reality I plucked some dried branches for decoration and kept them in my studio during the winter. Tidying up one day, I removed the dehydrated weeds from their home in a jar and tossed them temporarily on my drafting table. Turning on the drafting light I became fascinated with the patterns and cast shadows made by the dried plant. Nothing would suffice but to sit down and immediately paint what I saw. At the final stage of fireweed, nothing remains but the withered brown leaves and curled, twisted split pods. Still beautiful. An intriguing wildflower. Hours later I realized that my housecleaning project stalled at dusting the shelf. Cleaning can wait, I have paintings to make!
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Gail Niebrugge, wildflower painter

We started preparing for the Alaska State Fair in Palmer early this year, we plan to move outside the noisy, hot, crowded Raven Hall into a booth of our own.  Our Niebrugge Studio booth is 10′x20′ with 10′ walls, plenty of room to hang framed artwork.  It is fun to watch professional carpenters work, they are so fast!  It would have taken Bob and I all summer to do what they did in two days.

The electrician finished the rough wiring today, so the inside walls will go up this week, along with the roof and external siding.  We will have double opening doors on the front with a ramp.  My next mission is to get some signs made and to select light fixtures.  Bob says he will build the counter and print bins.  Good thing we started early, we may be painting the exterior during the fair!

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Gail Niebrugge, Alaska artist

Our resident muskrat was busy yesterday swimming back and forth in the cove while its mate scratched and dug in the dried grasses and thawing mud along shore. One time he swam straight toward me as I sat on the dock then disappeared underneath. The Mallard duck curiously eyes the feisty muskrat as it stops at nothing to get where it is going, cutting any creature off who might be in the way.

Here he is swimming rapidly toward me just before ducking under the dock.

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Gail Niebrugge, Alaska artist

Wow, warm temperatures, wind and poof, the ice evaporated! Boats are happily cruising around searching for the glory hole where the biggest fish can be caught. And, I’m content again. This morning I was greeted by a Common Loon majestically swimming in the cove, such a beautiful bird! In a week or two all the trees will be green again. Summer is almost here!

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Gail Niebrugge, landscape paintings

Although the ice pack is melting rapidly, and two-thirds of the lake is now open water, our cove seems to lure ice like bees to honey.  It is like a giant ice magnet attracted every inch of icy slush on the lake into our cove and made a permanent deposit, essentially blocking the ducks, grebes, and boats from reaching shore.  In the distance I can hear the sounds of boat motors roaring up and down, and the calls of waterfowl while our cove is locked into a frigid, surreal, silence.  Tomorrows temperature is forecast to be in the high 50’s to the low 60’s, the conditions might just be warm enough for this winter hangover to evaporate.  It can happen none too soon for me.

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Gail Niebrugge, landscape paintings

After several days of wind the ice pack is congregated more toward the center and west end of the lake, frustrating the drivers of a couple of power boats who have attempted to be the first to circle the island. Today is May 5, 2008, my neighbor who has lived here for thirty years said that this is one of the latest dates for the ice to go out that she can recollect. Meanwhile the ice moves back and forth in the wind, breaking into odd shaped chunks. Sometimes it will return to touch our dock, other times it will have all drifted to the south and the cove will be clear. It is interesting to watch, but I wish it were gone!

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Gail Niebrugge, landscape artist

Yesterday, with the sun warming my back I dug through the dead leaves in my flower bed and found the first tender shoots of the Blue Poppy!  After all these years, I am still in awe of the miracle of spring.  I spent a delightful morning discovering the coming to life of my Iris bulbs, and a couple of Asiatic Lilies.  It looks like all my Blue Poppies will return, Hallelujah!  In three weeks we can plant annuals and vegetables.  I’ll be putting some seeds before that, those that can withstand a light frost.  We should be frost free by Memorial Day.

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Gail Niebrugge, Alaska wildflower artist

The morning of May 3, 2008, Bob checked out the shoreline and the open water appears to be about 60′ wide (the dock is 50′ long).  By evening the open water had more than doubled, and the first Red Necked Grebe noisily announced its arrival squawking and calling in a high screechy warbling trill.  All the other ducks clung close to the shore, not wanting to be the target of an underwater dive attack from the Grebe.  The wind blew and the sun shone, just the right combination to cause the ice to evaporate quickly.  Hooray!

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Gail Niebrugge, Alaska artist

“Fireweed III” original acrylic and watercolor painting by Gail Niebrugge, sold.

Hot on the trail of understanding the stages of fireweed, I ran out of pre-painted textured boards, so I turned to a fresh sheet of heavy rag paper and my box of brushes. After a quick pencil sketch of the fireweed at the early seed stage I applied a multi-colored wash of watercolor with spatters and salt produced speckles. Allowing much of the underpainting to show, I developed the details and the dark spaces between leaves with acrylic. The result is a light, airy, comfortable painting depicting fireweed at the stage, where the long pods from previous blossoms turn red and the lower pods split and spew fuzzy fluff. Gorgeous!

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Gail Niebrugge, wildflower artist

“Fireweed II” original acrylic painting by Gail Niebrugge, sold.

Buoyed by confidence from the successful outcome of my first fireweed painting, where I painted over the top of an ugly old collage, I immediately set to work using the surface of an even more grotesque pallet knife-poured paint experiment. During this phase of my career recycling artwork seemed to be just the ticket. I slowly weaned myself from a palette knife and gave brushes a try but I still liked the look of texture. Painting with brushes over an irregular, uneven surface gave me a new challenge. “Fireweed II” depicts the seed stage of this common Alaska wildflower. At the top are the long pods formed after the flowers mature, further down shows the pods split open releasing a downy fluff. The split pods begin to curl and form interesting shapes. I employed dripping and splattering techniques in the background, experimentation is so much fun!

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Gail Niebrugge, wildflower artist

Photo taken at 8:00PM on April 30, 2008.  About 30′ of shoreline in our cove is open water, the rest of the lake is still locked in ice.  It seems late for break-up.  By this date last year most of the lake was free of ice and was a popular rest stop for hoards of ducks and waterfowl.  This year a lone pair of Barrows Goldeneye and a pair of Mallards share the ice free zone, with a few Bonaparte Gulls who prefer resting and pooping on our dock.  I miss the ducks.

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Gail Niebrugge, Alaska landscape artist

“Fireweed I” original acrylic and collage painting by Gail Niebrugge, sold.

My thirty plus decade love affair with fireweed began during my first summer in Copper Center, Alaska, surrounded by fields of wildflowers. Above is one of my earliest paintings of the plant. In actuality it began as one of my few attempts at collage that I painted over with acrylic. With art supplies at a premium in the wilderness, I never threw anything away. Years before I made an unsuccessful attempt at collage, pasting all manner of paper and stuff to a masonite panel. It was ugly, butt ugly. But, I carted it around with me anyway clinging to the hope that I could eventually turn it into a masterpiece. Running low on canvas one day I reluctantly bid farewell to my repugnant collage, and coated it with a layer of dark acrylic paint. The texture was gorgeous, and soon I was immersed in creating a painting of fireweed in the red leaves stage. The irregular surface gave the leaves a dried-up wrinkled look and made it a very successful painting.

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Gail Niebrugge, wildflower paintings

“Green Aurora” original acrylic painting in pointillism by Gail Niebrugge. Original sold, limited edition prints sold out, a few Artist Proofs are available.

On a clear night during winter the green aurora borealis can be found dancing in the sky somewhere. One has only to watch and wait and this beautiful phenomena will appear. Unfortunately this is not the case in the city where man-made lights obscure the sky, to experience their full beauty drive to the wilderness.

While studying these events I learned that their are many different colors and configurations of the northern lights, green is the most common and the tallest and can extend upward for more than a mile. I love Alaska in the winter, every day is different from the next, always changing, always beautiful. As an artist, I am blessed.

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Gail Niebrugge, wilderness painter

Fuzzy out-of-focus photo taken by me (I’m an artist, not a photographer) of the return of the muskrat to the cove on our lake.  After yesterday’s snow melted there is about 20′ of open water along the shore, the rest of the lake is still locked in ice.   This is the first sighting of the resident muskrat, actually I think he mated because TWO muskrats were feeding along the shore together.  I tried to sneak up on them to get a photo, but they both quickly dove under water and I only caught this bad shot just before this one disappeared.  Now, if I were the photographer that my son Ron is, I’d set up a blind and wait hours using a tripod and get clear, crisp, close-up shots of both of them.  I don’t have that kind of patience, that’s why I paint!

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Gail Niebrugge, Alaska landscape artist

April 26, 2008, the landscape is beautiful this morning, no yard work worries today.  I doubt anyone will even bother to snow plow because it is supposed to warm into the 50’s by afternoon.  I’m just glad I don’t have to drive anywhere until this evening.  Today I’m just going to enjoy looking at the last breath of winter.

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Gail Niebrugge, Alaska landscape artist

Yesterday we were raking dead leaves and planning to aerate the lawn and today 15″ of snow is forecast!  We’ve already taken the studded tires off the cars.  Accidents are everywhere.  A strange, cool Spring.  Last year the lake was free of ice by May 5, I don’t think this will be the case this year.  So much for global warming.  Maybe in your town, but not mine.

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Gail Niebrugge, Alaska landscape artist

“Red Aurora” original acrylic painting in pointillism by Gail Niebrugge, original sold, limited edition prints sold out, some Artists Proofs available.

If you haven’t had the pleasure to witness a red aurora borealis, you have missed a spectacular, wondrous event. The red-colored northern lights are like nothing else, even the very best man-made artificial laser show cannot compare to the size and scope of one of these rare events. I imagined a herd of caribou, normally invisible in the black of night and moving soundlessly, silhouetted against the glow of a red aurora. Without the incandescent heavens, nighttime in Alaska’s wilderness is very dark. The Wrangell-St. Elias is a magical place no matter the season, but the best part is that it is in my very own back yard.

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Gail Niebrugge, Alaska’s wilderness pointillism artist