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The brown and sienna dots along the edges have been covered with various shades of green, I like the look, it feels more comfortable.  The poppy center is quickly roughed in, mainly to establish color and value to help me finish work on the flower petals.  That will be next.  The painting is about the petals, and they are so incomplete that I’m not sure right now if I can get them to “read” soft and fragile.  It seems a daunting task at the moment.  Right now they look stiff and heavy, like cardboard cut-outs.  I’ve got a lot of work to do, careful and subtle.   Very slight value changes, nothing drastic or hard.  The thin veins and tiny details will be left for the very, very last.  I must get the structure right first, like framing a house.   If the “bones” of the painting are correct, the rest will flow with ease.  We are looking at a lot of broken bones at the moment.

More tomorrow,

Gail Niebrugge, flower artist

The petals of the Himilayan Blue Poppy are taking shape with the addition of many blue, blue green and blue violet dots.  I think the background is too dark and I’m not satisfied with the brown tinge to the overall color, maybe I’ll cover the brown dots with green ones and see how they look.  I want a softer “feel” to the image.

More tomorrow,

Gail Niebrugge, pointillism original painting

This is a close-up of the lower right hand corner of the painting   At this stage I am filling in the white spaces around the original dots on the perimeter and adding some brownish orange, and rust colors along with the dark blues.  You can see how the dots begin to overlap each other, soon no white of the canvas will show.

More tomorrow,

Gail Niebrugge, pointillism art

These were the conditions during half of our seven hour drive to Eielson AFB Friday on the Parks Highway grade as we approached the summit just before Cantwell.  On the left side of the road is a vehicle buried in three feet of snow and an ambulance.  It pays to drive slow when the roads are in this condition, it is nearly a three hour drive to the nearest hospital in Wasilla.  We towed the cargo trailer which made the drive even slower.

Bob in our booth talking to two vendors from the “Pearly Girls” booth.  Because we drove and set-up on the same day we used our short walls and halogen spot lights to speed up installation of the 20′ by 8′ booth.  The show was from 9-5 on Saturday and after it closed we tore down and were ready to leave by 6:30PM.  After a night of sleep at the North Pole  made the return trip under slightly better conditions, heavy winds near Denali National Park and rain most of the way from there.  I’m glad to be home again, and very tired.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska artist

Wow, the ice is melting very slow this spring.  We have about 50′ of open water now, and the muddy looking areas in the open water are patches of frozen weeds.  A pair of Mallard ducks have already staked out the shoreline in the woods next to Bob’s frame shop.  I know spring will come, it always does, but I get so anxious it is hard to wait!

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska landscape artist

Now the painting is taking on an extremely pointillistic look, some artists will settle for the wide spacing of dots with white space showing around each one.  I, on the other hand, overlap my dots until they are difficult to see.  Don’t ask me why, it is intuitive.  I keep painting until the image satisfies my eye without regard to technique.  At this phase the image is difficult to discern, especially when working up close, and my brain feels the strain of sorting out the dots.

More tomorrow,

Gail Niebrugge, pointillism painting

At this stage I begin to add multi-colored blue dots to define the layers of petals.  These dots will change in color and value many, many times before the painting is complete.  I’m working to establish the color dominance of the painting, at this point I’m using analogous hues in the blue family.  I might try to punch the blue up by using the complementary color along the perimeter with shades and hues of orange.  On the other hand, the center of the poppy is orange and that might be enough.

More tomorrow,

Gail Niebrugge, pointillism painter

At this phase I begin to add pointillism around the perimeter of the flower petals.  I chose dark values to begin but I’m not sure that I will stay with blues and browns, once the blossom is painted I will adjust the background colors.

More tomorrow,

Gail Niebrugge, flower artist

Time to paint again.  For the next month I will try to squeeze the yard work in between painting sessions.  I need time to stretch while painting, so going into the garden to do a chore or two during the middle of the day for an hour or so works for me.  The first project on the easel is to paint a big close-up of a Himalayan Blue Poppy, one that grew in my garden last summer.  I begin with a loose pencil sketch on a stretched canvas.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska flower artist

Three years ago I strung the pea trellis in 12″ squares with garden twine that eventually rotted.  Last summer the vines came crashing down in the wind and in an act of desperation I wrapped twine around the outside of the mass of tangled stems creating an odd semi upright plant.  The snap peas yielded a lot of vegetables, but they were very hard to pick and locate in the dense matted foliage.  This year I vowed to re-string the frames with 6″ squares using nylon masonry/fishing line.  The job is done, now we’ll see how well this arrangement works.  I’m glad I started early, it gets very hectic during the one week we can plant for our short 90 day growing season.

Gail Niebrugge, painter of plants and flowers

It is hard to say if break-up on the lake is progressing fast or slow, in two days things don’t look too much different, but the surface of the ice is very porous.  An ATV sped across from shore to shore today, other than that it has been very quiet.  Not enough water along the edge yet to attract migrating waterfowl, it won’t  be long though.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska artist

The edges of our lake are beginning to thaw, and the surface looks quite porous.  Although the ice is still very thick in the center of the lake, I wouldn’t trust it enough to drive a vehicle across.  Someone will, however, and sometimes they suffer the consequences.  I heard that a vehicle fell through the ice on Big Lake last week.  That sort of messes up the engine and the interior can get a wee bit muddy, not something I’d like to consider restoring.  Soon the lake will be ice free!

Gail Niebrugge, artist

Evaluating winter damage to the yard, I checked out the splint we made for a young injured Mountain Ash that snapped during a dark, cold December blizzard, and discovered the little crippled tree had been feasted on by moose!  Every branch was cropped.  As I checked the other yearling trees I found all the deciduous varieties had been munched by moose.  My yard was used for meals last winter!  It will be interesting to see if these tender saplings recover.  It is tough to establish new trees on this moose infested, wind swept, rocky gravel lot next to the lake in Wasilla, Alaska.  Dawggone it!

Gail Niebrugge, landscape painter

Sunny skies and warm sun greeted me in Fairbanks where I gave a presentation to a great group of artists, members of the Fairbanks Watercolor Society.  It was a lovely evening and I was able to talk to folks that have been following my work for over 30 years!  They are a very active group and have many events in the works, congratulations to the members and thank you for inviting me to visit.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska artist

My favorite guys from Brandlen Tree Care, (907) 357-8855, are back in the yard cutting down another dead cottonwood.  This one is quite close to the garage, but these guys know their business and it fell perfectly in an open space brilliantly missing everything.

The dead logs are pulverized into wood chips that we plan to spread around on the walkways in the garden.  Now we have a huge pile of chips next to the huge pile of snow left from plowing the driveway last winter, as soon as the snow melts we’ll start disbursing chips.  There is always something to do in the yard now, we’ve had six months of rest during the cold dark winter, and are ready to be outdoors again!

Gail Niebrugge, artist

It is so nice to go outdoors in a lightweight polar fleece jacket and a pair of ordinary shoes and spend some time in the garden.  Huge piles of snow from the snowplow are thawing rapidly, the rest of the yard is nearly ice free and pools of water are collecting in the low areas.  My first inspection revealed a lot of dead fall from the winter wind.  We were pretty lucky and only a few small trees snapped in half, their branches strewn about haphazardly like pick-up-sticks.  Several of our neighbors lost large trees, one was at least 16″ in diameter.

I filled the wheelbarrow several times with blown down twigs and dragged the fractured tree trunks to the clearing near the road creating a mound of tinder to burn.  My next chore is to rebuild the shredded trellises in the vegetable garden, this time I’ll use twine that doesn’t rot.  A giant cottonwood tree died standing and is too close to the garage, we will have the tree cutters dismantle and chip it to use for pathways in the garden.

Winter is clearly over and spring is on the way.  I saw the first green shoots of the onion plant, emerging through the remains of dried dead leaves.  And, a weed is already turning green.  But, living on a lake we are constantly reminded of winter.  The surface is still frozen 2-3′ deep.  Canada geese circled overhead seeking the temporary ponds in thawing hay fields, and my spirits soar like the geese at this time of the year.  It is hard to stay indoors and work in the studio.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska artist

Exciting news, I am selected as one of three Artists-in-Residence at Denali National Park and Preserve for 2009!   I will be staying for ten days at the East Fork Cabin from August 4 until August 13 and plan to give a public presentation or field trip sometime during my stay.  The details need to be ironed out yet, I will keep you posted.

This is a great opportunity and I’m looking forward to the experience.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska wilderness artist

Recently I walked from the studio out on to the lake ice and took a three mile journey along the shore.  The evening is cooler, a thin cloud cover obscured the sky, but it is comfortable without wind.  Slowly the sun started to penetrate the veil of misty sky and a hazy glowing ball of fire appeared reflecting on the ice.  A sun dog!  So beautiful.  I stood for a long time watching as it finally faded away settling behind the distant tree lined shore.  What a precious moment in time, and a gift to have had the opportunity to witness, one that I would like to try to paint.

Gail Niebrugge, Landscape artist

The Alyeska Ski Club hosted its last race of the season for the Mighty Mites, actually it was open to all skiers under the age of 12.  Over 200 youngsters entered the Giant Slalom that took place on the slopes of the Lower Race Trail near Quad 4.  Skiers as young as 3 years old participated!  The competition was assigned by age groups, boys and girls skied the same course in a single race.

A warm gentle snow fell the whole day, melting as it landed on jackets, hats and gloves.  It was a wet event.  Many volunteers were needed, a bar-be-q cranked out hot dogs and hamburgers all day long, and bib checkers, score keepers, groomers, coaches, course set up and take down, and gate keepers worked to make the event a success.  Since my grandchildren participate in these events I decided to volunteer to help.  Boy, did I learn a thing or two.  This old flat-lander and neophyte cross country skier had her eyes opened, wide.

Gate Keepers make sure that each skier crosses between each of the alternating red and blue flagged gates.  The ideal course is also painted with a blue line on the snow, see photo above.  It is a simple enough task to observe each participant, because they come down the course one at a time.  If a competitor misses a gate the Gate Keeper notes the bib number, then quickly draws a little map showing the erroneous course and corresponding gates.  A piece of cake for an artist, right?  Wrong.

My five gates were the last before the finish line and the youngest racers went first, as they neared the finish some just choose the path of least resistance or saw the crowd and headed in that direction often missing two or more gates.  While I was frantically trying to recreate the crazy course in a sketch and remember the bib number with wet gloves and a baggie over the score sheets, the next little urchin would come down missing a completely different series of gates.  I definitely needed extra eyes and help during the tiny tots race.  It became easier as the seasoned skiers flew by, only a few missed a gate and none missed more than that, but trying to see the bib number as they were tucked for the finish was a challenge.  Fortunately the crowd would often call out a name in encouragement and I could find them on the entry sheet.  It was fun, and definitely a challenge for a newbie like me.

It was a wonderful way to spend time enjoying something that my family loves.  Happy Easter everyone!

Gail Niebrugge, artist

Today I hiked the frozen lake west from the studio and rounded the peninsula to the slough.  There are several springs in the area creating a river of overflow on the ice, and it isn’t safe to traverse.  Now I know where the ducks are spending their time, and why they fly low over our yard in the evening.  It is a short straight line from our yard to this spot, and quite secure hidden in the woods.

Yesterday’s blog I wrote about the Muskrat “pushups” scattered about the surface of the ice, looking a lot like horse dung.  This is a rather large one, about 3′ across, and is made up of weeds and grasses pulled from the bottom of the lake.  It is a fine spot to take a rest, feed, and a breathing hole for the Muskrats who live mostly underwater.  There is so much to see along the lake in the spring.

Gail Niebrugge, artist