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If you have been reading my Blog entries “Kennicott Commission” you watched the progress of this original. Kennicott;Stabilized is available in a limited edition of 600, image size 9″x12″ signed and numbered by the artist, printed on acid free paper priced at $50.00 US. The painting features the historic Kennecott Copper Mine, in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, and shows the glacier moraine and Mt. Blackburn in the distance. This historic site is one of my most favorite places to visit in Alaska, and one of the reasons I chose to live and work as an artist in the Copper River Valley thirty one years ago.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska Artist

Here is the finished painting, I have titled it “Kennicott-Stabilized.” It represents all of the work that the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park has done to protect this historic monument todate. I am pleased with the painting. It is made up of thousands and thousands of tiny dots, a technique called pointillism. Next, the painting will be delivered to Chris Arend Photography in Anchorage to be documented, after that I will do the final gel medium varnish that will intensify the color. I wait until the photography is complete before I paint the finish gel medium because it can cause unnecessary reflections. After the gel medium dries, I will select a suitable frame.

Thank you for watching my progress on this major work, you can see how time consuming my technique of pointillism is, and how detail oriented I am as an artist. I am proud of this painting, it has been a labor of love.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska Artist

A close up detail of the foreground foliage on the lower right side of the Kennicott original painting. (more…)

A detail of the foreground foliage in the Kennicott original painting. It is time for me to tackle the foreground, here is how it looked at the beginning. (more…)

A close up section of the Kennicott original painting showing the top of the ore crushing mill. This area is fairly complete with the exception of the distant mountains and some of the glacier moraine. (more…)

This is an overview of the last three or four blog entries that featured close up details of the Kennicott original painting showing some of the mill buildings, the glacier moraine and the distant mountains. Extensive pointillism has been used on the buildings, the moraine is nearly complete, but the distant mountains are just roughed-in with one layer of dots and the snow of Mt. Blackburn is the white of the canvas at this point. (more…)

A section of the Kennicott original painting showing Mt. Blackburn, no paint has been added yet to the white areas of snow. The pointillism in the sky is partially complete, the purple ridge is underpainted only, and the green ridge in front is partially finished. (more…)

A section of the distant mountains in the Kennicott original painting showing several layers of pointillism on the ridge to the left, and mostly underpainting on the purple ridge. (more…)

A section of the glacier moraine on the Kennicott original painting with partially completed pointillism. (more…)

I find myself wanting to do more work to the top of the mill in the Kennicott original painting. This close-up shows most of the building painted in extensive pointillism without detail. (more…)

A detail of the glacier moraine and the chimneys on the Kennicott original painting. In this view I will focus on the development of pointillism in the background glacier moraine. The buildings are painted in extensive pointillism at this point.

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Above is a section of the Kennicott original. I’ve chosen this detail to illustrate the progress of pointillism in the underpainted glacier moraine area of the background. The foreground has a fair amount of pointillism at this stage, and a few dots begin to define some of the crevices on the moraine. (more…)

The above detail shows the underpainting on a section of the background glacial moraine in the Kennicott original painting. At this point I have added pointillism to the trees on the distant mountains. (more…)

Detail of the glacier background in the Kennicott original painting. It is time to tackle painting the glacier and moraine, it consists of mostly underpainting at this point with the exception of a little pointillism directly behind the roof tops. (more…)

Above is a detail close-up of the new roof at the top of the Kennicott Ore Crushing Mill in the Kennicott painting. Numerous layers of dots have been applied at this stage. (more…)

Above is a close-up detail of a section of the Kennicott painting. Pointillism is used extensively on the buildings, what remains to be done is final detail on the windows and stairs. Detail will wait until the very end. As you can see, the background still remains mostly underpainting.

More tomorrow.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska Artist

A section of the Kennicott painting showing close-up detail of an area where I began to apply pointillism over the underpainting. (more…)

Close-up detail of a section of the Kennicott painting showing the early application of pointillism to the underpainting. (more…)

Above is a close-up detail of pointillism in the Kennicott original painting. I find myself leaving the glacier moraine for later, and pursuing the lower third portion of the art work. The buildings and shadows are fun right now, and are hard to leave alone. (more…)

Above is a close up view of a section of the glacier moraine in the Kennicott painting. At this stage very few dots have been added, what you see is mostly underpainting. (more…)