niebruggestudio.com

I have about a dozen of these tough, hardy, dependable Hansa Rugosa bushes in the yard. Once they begin to bloom they provide an abundance of roses, the ground is soon carpeted with colorful petals and the plants continue to produce multitudes of buds for months. It doesn’t seem that anything can harm them, during winter some are hidden under huge piles of snow accumulated from plowing the drive, others stand as stark prickly silhouettes against wind blown snow drifts. Whatever the reason, they flourish in my garden and they are loved and cherished.

Gail Niebrugge, flower artist

My garden is yielding huge quantities of succulent tasty vegetables, more than we can use, so we share the bounty with neighbors and friends. It is going to be hard to be away for ten days the first of August doing my stint as Artist-in-Residence in Denali National Park. When I scheduled my dates last winter I didn’t take into account that the garden would be at its peak yield.

Here is part of tonight’s dinner. We’ve found that turnip is fabulous and sweet eaten raw with a dip as are the carrots, we bar-b-que beet slices coated lightly with olive oil, kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. Yum, delicious! Zucchini and yellow squash are waiting in the refrigerator along with snap peas and the small shoots of broccoli that grow after the big heads are harvested.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska landscape painter

My hiking partner, Evelyn Bunch, getting ready to leave our lunch spot along the beach on the Eklutna Lake Trail. We estimated that we hiked about 4 miles out, 8 miles round trip, on a lovely level trail that skirts the lake. I’ve been sidelined for a few weeks with a knee/leg injury so I was seeking a hike that wasn’t a big challenge physically, this was the perfect choice! On a cloudy, warm day we enjoyed views of this stunning glacier fed lake, cooled by an occasional sprinkle of rain, we commented that this was perfect hiking weather.

This is my last hike in the valley for awhile, next week I will embark on a 10 day stay at Denali National Park serving as Artist-in-Residence. I’m confident that plenty of hiking is in the mix during my residency. I may not be able to send daily blogs during my Denali visit as access to internet is generally limited to outside the park boundaries, so we shall see. Whatever the situation, I’ll certainly post photos and stories about my adventures once I’ve returned to the studio.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska artist

The perennials along the walk to the studio front door are beginning to bloom, wow, it is going to be a riot of color this year! These are three Asiatic Lily plants, I have a total of ten in this flower bed. I’m going to miss some of the bloom while I’m serving as Artist-in-Residence in Denali for 10 days in August.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska flower painter

The second round of cauliflower are maturing in the garden.  This one will be ready to pick in a day or two.  My plants are growing by leaps and bounds this summer, I have a small White Spruce that has more than 28″ of new growth and most have over a foot!  Love the weather this year, perfect for growing.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska painter

Tonight is the closing reception for my art show, July 25, from 5:30 till 7:30 at the beautiful new Primrose Retirement Community located at 889 N. Elkhorn, Wasilla. Bob and I will be there with a selection of unframed prints and and will be happy to help you choose artwork that will enhance your home or office. The show will come down after the event, the next scheduled exhibit of my work will be in our booth at the Alaska State Fair, Palmer, from August 27 to September 7. In between these events I will be serving as Artist-in-Residence at Denali National Park. A busy August, to be sure!

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska artist

In keeping with my plan to re-forest our acre of weeds and rocks we ordered more trees from our favorite tree farm; Baker’s Acres 674 W. Selina Lane, Wasilla, AK 99654 Tel: 907/357-4175, by appointment only.
Ed Baker carefully delivered three Lilac’s, two Caragana’s, and one superb 7′ White Spruce.  The Lilac and Caragana will be planted along the fence at the property line, and the spruce will be added to my collection of transplanted trees out by the road.  Someday, probably when I’m nearing 90, we will have a beautiful forest again replacing all the trees that were ripped out to build the house.

Bob planting a Lilac along the fence.  Ed grows a type of Lilac that the moose won’t eat.  This is important because our yard became a salad bowl for moose last winter.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaskan landscape artist

It seems like my zucchini grows an inch a day, it is nearly a foot long now and shows no sign of slowing down.  I’m kept hopping to stay up with the bounty from the vegetable garden this summer.  Everything is juicy, sweet and crisp.  Love summer and fresh veggies!

Gail Niebrugge, art of Alaska

While visiting Copper Center, Alaska, we took a short drive to see the beloved fishwheel that served us during our ninteen years of residency.  I walked down the familiar, worn wooden ramp and checked the box where two fresh red salmon were flopping, straining to escape.  I miss my daily walk down the dusty lane through the forest of paper birch to the fishwheel.  Things haven’t changed much, the river was full and raging from the summer heat, a few more houses are sprinkled in the woods, and my onetime neighbors yard sports a lush vegetable garden nearly as large as the one I’m growing in Palmer.  Life in the Copper River Basin during summer is good, but I don’t miss the severe, difficult winters anymore.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaskan artist

Saturday we attended a long planned, super secret, surprise birthday party for my old friend Donna Church in our former community of Copper Center, Alaska.  We had a wonderful time renewing friendships, catching up on news and eating authentic home made pot-luck food.  Our visit brought back many memories of raising our children and working in this wilderness neighborhood during the late 1970’s through early 1990’s.  What we miss most, besides the use of the resident fish wheel, are the people.  Warm, generous, tough, hard-working, the people of the Copper River Basin are the best of the best.  We love and cherish our old friends and neighbors.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaskan artist

My vegetable garden is in full bloom, yesterday I harvested broccoli, cauliflower, turnips and beets.  I thinned the carrots and have a bag full of tender babies for snacks.  Pods are forming on the pea vines, squash is 6″ long, and brussel sprouts are emerging along the tall leafy stalks.  Life is good.  Nasturtiums are flowering throughout the garden and bring bees who pollinate squash.  I pollinated with a tiny paintbrush before I began including flowers with the vegetables.  Pollinating is like painting in the garden!

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska artist

Bob and our guide, Jeremy Anderson, standing next to Bob’s King Salmon caught from the drift boat on the Kasilof River, Alaska.

Seining boats harbored in the beautiful Kasilof River.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska Artist

We have taken our house guests King Salmon fishing with guide Jeremy Anderson of Drift Away Fishing on the Kasilof River, Alaska.  My blog posts will be irregular for the next week.  I’ll let you know how we did when I get back to my computer and internet service.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska Artist

Mother Grebe feeding the one day old chick while the two day old chick watches.  On the lower left the father Grebe forages for food.  We had the pleasure of watching this family grow in the nest that was constructed on a log just ten feet from our dock.  This is the second year the Grebes have chosen this spot.  Another family built a floating nest in the middle of the cove and produced two chicks several weeks ago.  A third couple re-built their nest three times picking very poor locations, the final spot is on a floating “Bird Nesting Area” sign, and is very unstable.  It will be a miracle if the eggs hatch, especially after all the personal watercraft activity during the recent heat wave, and the non-enforcement of the No Wake Zone 100′ from shore.  The other regulation that has been ignored is the 11:00 pm to 8:00 am “quiet time”, partiers have been roaring around in the semi light all night long, yelling and screaming.  I think I prefer the cool rainy time on the lake, instead of the hot days that bring out the drunken, thoughtless idiots.

Gail Niebrugge, wildlife artist

Details are complete, the painting is finished.  “Wing Dancing” 48″ x 60″ acrylic on canvas in pointillism showing Sandhill Cranes in the courtship dance.  It was fun and satisfying to paint something large, and took approximately nine weeks to complete. More bird paintings can be found on my website; wildlife.

Gail Niebrugge, wildlife artist

It is hard to find a comfortable place to work or play with the outdoor daytime temperatures in the high 70’s and the air filled with thick smoke from wildfires.  I keep the house/studio closed with windows and doors shut and it becomes suffocating, open them and the rooms fill with harsh, smoky air.  This will be our weather as long as the high pressure stays.  Only seven of the more than sixty wildfires are being fought the others will eventually burn out, so the smoke will be around for awhile.  Such are the woes of a warm summer in Alaska.

Gail Niebrugge, landscape artist

Another day of painting and I’m still concentrating on the background around the cranes, whenever I think I’m ready to paint details on the birds I am distracted by the negative space around them.  Above is a close up showing the many dots and colors in the foreground grasses.

I think the upper third of the canvas negative space looks stronger now.  It is hard to see in this photo, but I’ve added many, many dots of hues, tints, and shades to the gradation of values and incorporated blue violet, purple and red violet to the original blues that previously dominated.  The next step is to paint detail.

Gail Niebrugge, Wildlife paintings

Three old broads hiking the Reed Lakes Trail in Hatcher Pass in 81 degree heat!  Left to right me, Evelyn Bunch, and Mary Mystrom.  What a beautiful day to spend hiking in the mountains.

We made it to the lower lakes and made the decision to head back home.  We hiked close to 8 miles with a lot of climbing and boulder scramble.  My legs are sore today, climbing stairs is painful.  This was a much needed workout, good exercize!

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska Artist

At this point unless you can study each stage carefully and compare, the changes I’m making are subtle and may not be obvious.  I’ve added a lot of lighter colored grasses to the foreground, and began to darken the top third of the background in the left and right corners.  I’ve also blended the grasses in the distance into a softer fade.  I have done nothing to the birds for quite awhile.  These changes took about 8 hours of painting.  I don’t think I’ll work on the cranes until the very end, my next session will focus on finishing the top third of the background which still appears weak to me.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska wildlife painter

I’m working on refining all aspects of the painting, a little here, a little there, more variation of values in the grass and darkening the colors in the background behind the birds.  Next, I began work on the Sandhill crane wings, defining shapes and adding a some blur to the feathers at the wing tips.  The birds are still at a very roughed-in state.  The progress I’m making is subtle now and will take a careful comparison to see the difference between Stage #10 and Stage #11 of the painting, these changes took several days of work.  Some times after I make a change and don’t like it, I’ll paint it back the way it was before.  A lot of effort goes into a painting that is not visible, but all that matters is how it looks when it is finished.  When I paint again I will focus on more detail.

Gail Niebrugge, wildlife artist