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New photos to share. Here I am doing a giant signature with big fat unruly brushes on the wildflower mural in Seward. I didn’t have my brushes, so I improvised. Later in the day it rained cats and dogs, I hope the signature didn’t bleed all over the mural. Anyway, it was really fun to see the finished product.

More tomorrow.

Gail Niebrugge, Art of Alaska

We rode the Alaska Railroad train from Anchorage to Seward today and saw that the wildflower mural, painted a year ago, was installed downtown in Kawabe Park.  It looks fantastic!  Well worth the wait.  Next time you are in Seward be sure to take a look.  It will be especially nice to have those colorful flowers gracing the downtown in the middle of winter when the landscape is frozen white.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska Artist

Color guide and chart

Close up of color guide and chart
Here are the battered remains of the Seward Mural color chart and the color composition that were used as guides during the painting of the mural. The color comp sheet is made up of multiple pieces of paper attached with scotch tape. The color chart was used to match color paint chips at the local Spenard Builders Supply where cans of paint were mixed to match. Both of these charts were put to heavy use during the Mural-in-a-Day marathon last weekend.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska Artist

The nearly finished mural waiting for pointillism.  Photo by Ron Niebrugge.

We agreed to meet at the terminal Monday morning at 8:30 AM to put some pointillism in the mural.  I couldn’t stay long, for we had appointments in Anchorage and planned to be back in Palmer by mid afternoon.  All night I wrestled with the question of how to incorporate pointillism in this highly stylized, hard edged image.  It finally occurred to me to leave the image alone, and fill the white negative space around the image with dots.  Pale, multicolored dots that would read as a non color, a pale gray from a distance. (more…)

Gail with color #6.  Photo by Ron Niebrugge
Doped up with Advil for back and neck pain, I was the first to arrive on Sunday morning. In the total quiet of the big terminal I was able to paint without interruption and a feeling of calm came over me. It was a Zen like experience. Unfortunately it turned out to be the calm before the storm. Unlike Saturday, people started showing up early and they were an entirely different kind of crew. They immediately grasped the enormity of the task, rolled up their sleeves and painted with confidence! It finally dawned on me that I had a crew of experienced artists! My heart sang. (more…)

My daughter-in-law Janine, helping to paint.

I was the first person at the mural painting area Saturday morning, and found myself nervously pacing up and down looking for missed details. Sure enough, I found more unnumbered spots! Jennifer, the founder of the Seward Mural Society, explained that one of the rules for being accepted as a muralist for this event was to commit to paint for a whole day, painting for a few hours was discouraged. This way everyone was briefed at once, and eliminated interruptions. I liked this rule, it sounded like good planning. (more…)

All panels color numbered and ready to paint.  Photo by Ron Niebrugge.

Once the enlargement was complete, I spent the better part of the day assigning the thirty one color numbers to the blank spaces in the drawing.  Every time I thought the job was done, I found more blank spaces.  It was incredible how complicated this part of the job became, I was still finding unnumbered spaces well into the first painting day!  I felt that this part of the planning was essential to complete carefully, for an unknown number of strangers with paint and brushes were going to converge on the mural on Saturday.  Without a careful plan, chaos would reign. (more…)

Gail, and Dot Bardarson sketching the enlargement with help from Betsy Smith.

Even in the rain the drive to Seward Thursday, September 22, was beautiful. I always marvel at the magnificent scenery along Turnagin Arm and enjoyed the change from coastal green to brilliant fall as we drove over the mountains to the gorgeous alpine valleys. On our arrival we found the small coastal town of Seward ready and waiting for the anticipated influx of Art and Music Festival visitors. (more…)

I am busy preparing for my trip to Seward, Alaska, next week where the Seward Mural Society will paint my mural design on panels that will eventually be mounted on the outside of a building downtown. My husband and I considered many choices for lodging for our four day trip, and until yesterday were planning to camp along the waterfront in our truck and camper. But, a better offer changed our minds. We will be the guests of Bay Vista Bed and Breakfast, a fabulous home with warm hospitality nestled high on the hillside above the town. This arrangement will be perfect! We can drive our SUV and be free to roam around the town on during our visit. (more…)

Wildflower Garden by Gail Niebrugge ©2006

At last the Seward Mural design is finished! I’ve selected colors at the local paint store and assigned each color a number. The numbered drawing is ready for the Seward Mural Society to enlarge to the 8’ x 34’ format. I hope to see many of my collectors and readers at the Seward Art and Music Festival September 23-24, 2006, at the Seward Railroad Depot where I will be working with the muralists to produce “A Mural in a Day” from this design.

Gail Niebrugge, Alaska Artist

I’m just about finished with the color mock up for the Seward Mural, it has been a very time consuming job but looks great! I’m not sure how the enlargement process will work, the Seward Mural Society is in charge of this. My color mock up has a template with assigned color numbers, so any errors made during the enlargement process can be corrected easily. The next step will be for me to match the colors with paint swatches and forward this information to the muralists so that they can purchase the paint. (more…)

It took five days to incorporate details into my design for the mural that will be painted by 20-25 muralists during the Seward Music and Arts Festival, September 23-24, at the Alaska Railroad Terminal, Seward, Alaska. I am working on a very reduced scale drawing, and it still fills my 5’ wide drafting table. The final product will be 8’ high and 34’ long and will be mounted on the exterior of a building in downtown Seward. (more…)

The design for the Seward Mural looks great when printed out small enough to fit on a legal sized page, but as I began to enlarge the drawing it is clear that the details are missing. The devil is in the details. This stage of the drawing will take some time, but will be well worth the effort when enlarged to the 8’x34’ surface. (more…)

I’ve been working on the Seward Mural design and am coming to some conclusions. The details need to be simple and the color scheme limited as well. The muralists will work from cans of premixed paint and I have been asked to designate all the colors needed well in advance. This is not how I work, my palette is mixed as I paint and the colors change constantly. But, to paint the mural in a day or two it has to be carefully planned, simple and organized. (more…)

I’ve completed several designs for the Seward Mural today, each one is better than the previous effort. They are building on one another. The composition was stilted at first, and did not flow well. I enlarged the flowers and added more sweeping leaves. It feels better now. The sketch is in a ready enough state (drawn with ink and colored with marker) to post on my easel for a day or so to contemplate and mull over. (more…)

After visiting the site of the proposed Seward Mural last weekend I’ve been pondering many ideas and compositions. The Mural Society would like to see wildflowers incorporated in some way, but have given me complete freedom to paint whatever I want! (more…)

This is the site for the proposed mural I’ve been commissioned to paint for the Seward Mural Society. It will be mounted on posts about three feet in front of this building at the edge of Kawabe Park at the corner of Third and Adams downtown Seward, Alaska. Gail Niebrugge, Alaska Artist

Sunday morning we climb into our truck and camper and make the scenic drive from our home/studio in Palmer to the gorgeous seaside town of Seward, Alaska. Our son, well known professional photographer, Ron Niebrugge and his wife Janine live there. We have been celebrating the fourth of July watching and helping with the famous Mt. Marathon Race for many, many years. You can see Ron’s work on his photo website.

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Here is the current information regarding my proposed mural for a building (not yet selected) in Seward this year. The Seward Mural Society sponsors this project, it is called the 2006 “Mural in a Day”, and it is painted during the Seward Music and Arts Festival, September 23-24 at the Alaska Railroad Terminal in Seward, Alaska. (more…)

The other day I received an invitation to design a painting and oversee the painting of this design onto a large surface (approximately 10′x40′) that will be mounted on the outside of a building in downtown Seward. The town already has several of these large-sized murals on the exterior of buildings, and they give the place a charming, arty look. (more…)