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Sunflower 36″x48″ acrylic on canvas original pointillism painting.

The finished painting Sunflower. Next, the completed work will be photographed and digitized for my records, once the photography is complete I will apply several coats of Gloss Acrylic Gel to the entire surface. The gel will intensify color and give a nice tough finish to the surface. Since I prefer to use gloss gel I wait until after the painting is photographed before applying the finish coat, because the photo lighting reflects off the glossy surface and creates tiny white sparkles on the painting. When the gel coat is dry I take the painting to the frame shop for framing. Meanwhile I enter the title and vital information into my original painting database and original painting price lists. The image will be submitted for registration with the U.S. Government Copyright Office. The painting should be ready to exhibit at our annual Open House, October 20-21.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska Pointillism Artist

I am nearing the finish of the Sunflower original painting and it is time to add details, a part of painting that I enjoy very much! The photo above shows highlights and shadows on the seeds in the center of the sunflower. Next I will complete the detail on the yellow petals, and finally the leaves. Detail is saved for the very last.

More tomorrow.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska Art

At this point in the progress of the Sunflower original painting I evaluate the composition while the canvas is upside down. Compositional flaws will be quite obvious from this perspective. The upside down view shows me that the upper left portion of this painting is too light, and the diagonal lines of the leaves draw your eyes off the canvas at the corner. Otherwise, the rest of the composition is quite comfortable at this point.

More tomorrow,

Gail Niebrugge, Art of Alaska

Close-up of the center of the Sunflower original painting viewed upside down. I am developing the shadows between the seeds in the center of the flower. It is easier to reach this area of the painting by placing it upside down on the easel.

More tomorrow,

Gail Niebrugge, Art of Alaska

More visitors to the studio, this time my cousin and his wife Bob and Netia Manning from Mountain Home Idaho. Cousin Bob and I are standing next to the partially finished sunflower painting. The center seed area requires a lot more work, but the rest of the painting needs only highlights, darks and details. I’ll keep you posted.

Gail Niebrugge, Art of Alaska

Close-up detail of underpainting where several layers of dots have been applied to the leaves in the lower left section of the Sunflower original painting. (more…)

A close-up detail showing pencil lines, underpainting, and first layer of dots on the upper left section of the sunflower original painting. (more…)

This is a fairly large canvas, 36″x48,” with the easel positioned as low as it can go. Tall canvases require a lot of adjusting of the easel up and down in order for me to paint comfortably. I work hard to avoid bending over or raising my arm for long periods of time. The problem is that I have a tendency to be lazy and hate to take the time to move my tabouret, pull the easel out from the wall, unlock the stops and ratchet the easel to a new height then lock the stops, push the easel back and reposition the tabouret. So, I end up limiting my painting to one section of the composition at a time instead of moving freely around the whole canvas. For extremely large canvases I use more than one easel, sometimes I’ve used three easels and the logistics become even more complicated.

What I need is an easel with a pneumatic pump, like the one on my adjustable chair. My drafting table works that way too, but I’ve never seen an easel with one. Anyone know of such a product?
More tomorrow,

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska Artist

At this stage I concentrated on placing mid-value dots of acrylic paint on the top leaves and begin to develop the petals along the upper portion of the flower in pointillism.

More tomorrow,

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska Artist

First I lightly sketch the subject onto a canvas using a pencil, after that I flung paint all over the original sketch from several large brushes and created a random splattering of various colors. When the splatters and drips dried I applied acrylic paint as a transparent wash to fill in large areas with pale color. Next, I begin the time consuming task of layering opaque acrylic dots in mid-values on top of the transparent wash to begin developing the background leaves, petals, and the seed-filled center of the flower. The research for this painting took place several years ago in my back yard where this giant sunflower sprouted from a stray seed from the bird feeder. Fortunatley it landed in a flower bed and was easy to nurture.
More tomorrow.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska Artist