Original Art, Prints and Cards
Last week the film crew of Jerry LaVine at Connections Film & Video with Tony Sheppard and staff of Walsh/Sheppard Communications spent 3 hours at the studio of Gail Niebrugge filming a commercial for MTA, the local telephone coop. Afterward Gail asked how long her film clip would run, she was amazed that only 3-4 [...]
I have used 16 oz. jars of Utrecht acrylic paint for more than 30 years, and never considered changing brands because I’ve been satisfied by the paint, it was manufactured in the USA, and I’ve had good customer service from this American owned company. The only exception in my loyalty to that brand is that [...]
The view from the studio of Alaska Artist Gail Niebrugge is constantly changing, mild January temperatures have turned the frozen lake into an active playground. Between compiling year end taxes, inventory, and other mundane office work at the studio, Gail takes a break to enjoy watching the variety of activities outdoors. Lengthening daylight and sunshine [...]
Alaska Artist Gail Niebrugge Reference File For more than 40 years Alaska artist Gail Niebrugge has been gathering photos for her reference files for use in paintings that now fill several file cabinets. With the advent of the digital photo, Niebrugge stores her newest reference material on a computer with a back up hard drive. [...]
Alaska Artist Gail Niebrugge Alaska artist Gail Niebrugge pondered a recent acquisition of a very large canvas, 48″ x 72″, knowing that her labor intense, time consuming pointillism technique will take many months to complete a painting. The artist decided to begin the composition with large, loose brush strokes. The tiny #3 white sable brushes [...]
After allowing the mortar to dry overnight I applied a light colored grout (bone), after the grout dries I will clean any residue from the tiles and file down a few sharp corners, and my bench will be done!! Next we dig out a patch of grass on the lawn by the lake and pour [...]
I know I’m doing this the hard way, but this is how beginners learn. My original arrangement (top) is now being transferred bit by bit to a fiberglass sticky back mesh (directly below). I had many, many problems doing this. In the future I will place the mosaic segments directly onto the mesh with my [...]
The photo above (upside down) shows my design evolving. At first I thought nothing of using two different thicknesses of tiles, I soon found the uneven surface not to my liking. To replace the thicker tiles with thinner ones is challenging, color choices are limited in our inventory of found and discarded material. I also [...]
After a full day of smashing tile, pottery, and dishes into hundreds of irregular shapes I begin to find colors to use in my mosaic creation. We really scored with the border tiles of flowers (oops I see the bottom right horizontal one is upside down). These will go along the sides of the concrete [...]
My neighbor Carol and I decided to ramp-up our amateur mosaic and concrete skills after successfully making stepping stones last summer, during the winter Carol’s husband, Dennis, designed and built these sturdy concrete benches for us to experiment. I am excited, and know just where I want to place this bench in the yard once [...]
To help everyone find the residence art studio for Alaska artist Gail Niebrugge Open House Wednesday, June 20, from 4-7pm, Bob and our neighbor Dennis posted the house numbers on the big rock in out by the road in front. The location for the artist open house is 2528 N. Pointe Circle, Wasilla, AK 99654. [...]
We’ve been busy re-arranging the house and studio for the Open House Wednesday evening from 4-7 pm, June 20. The yard is very green and the garden is starting to grow, a couple of days of sunshine made the plants surge (weeds as well). We are looking forward to hosting a fun event, wine & [...]
Things I like as an artist, by Gail Niebrugge All of us can quickly list things we dislike, that is easy. From waiting on hold while listening to an obnoxious recording, to having the computer screen crash. But, finding things that you do every day that you like might take some thought. Here is my [...]
The saws, drills, glue, muddy boots, and worker chaos are all gone, instead I have beautiful new granite kitchen counters, stainless steel sink with a fancy faucet. I love this. New counters in the master bath as well. We spent the rest of the day vacuuming, shaking out rugs, cleaning up plaster dust and wood [...]
I’m thinking I’m not going to be able to cook dinner in the kitchen tonight, new counter tops being installed! Since my studio is in my home, I find it very hard to work while workers are running in and out using big drills, saws, and the like. Hopefully the job will be finished tomorrow [...]
Alaska comes alive during the holidays with tiny colorful lights everywhere. Our long days of darkness are enhanced by outdoor lights. This is a photo of the studio/residence at 9:00AM, December 2, the upstairs studio lights have been on for hours where I am hard at work. The shortest day (solstice) is a few weeks [...]
Sometimes it seems that everything I touch is screwed up, and this week is no exception. Sometimes I feel like a prisoner to recorded telephone messages. My website shopping cart is down and after two days of work it is not restored. I’m loosing sales and customers, this is distressing. I thought I was staying [...]
Last week when making our mosaic concrete stepping stones we ended up with an excess of wet cement. Not ones to let a valuable resource go to waste the group gathered some giant rhubarb leaves, placed them on piles of rounded sand and began shoveling cement over them. Shown above are neighbors Mary Mystrom shoveling [...]
Gathered in the hangar waiting to un-mold our fabulous mosaic stepping stone creations, left to right; Bob Niebrugge, Lois Munford, John Mues, Jack Simpson, Dennis & Carol Eby, Joann Collins with visiting brother on her left, me, Sue Mues, taking the photo Mary Mystrom, missing; Sonya Falconer, Kathy and Lindie Sage. Our first attempts will [...]
Gail Niebrugge (Knee-brew-ghe) born and raised in California has pursued art since childhood, winning a poster contest on the Johnny Jet television show at the age of twelve. Gail began her career as an illustrator for the US Navy and Marines in San Diego, and later established the Instructional Media Center for the Grossmont High School District in La Mesa, California. The Niebrugge family fell in love with Alaska while on vacation in 1976 and never returned home, instead they established a residence and studio in the remote interior settlement of Copper Center where the artist painted … [Read More...]
Wikipedia defines pointillism as; "a style of painting in which small distinct points of primary colors create the impression of a wide selection of secondary and intermediate colors." It goes on to say that the mind and the eye mix the color spots into a full range of tones and that it is closely related to Divisionism. Divisionism was practiced by Georges Seurat during the Neo-Impressionism period. He broke his color into basic elements and painted very small and regular dots. His dots are carefully placed as to not touch each other, so the white under painted canvas shows around all of the dots. I call my painting technique pointillism, but technically it is incorrect according to Wikipedia. The difference between my technique and true pointillism is that I use … [Read More...]
