Gail Niebrugge's Blog
At this stage of the painting the house and background are partially finished, the foreground flower garden is barely roughed in. I’m establishing depth in the scene with color, and carefully choosing values. The seated figure is not painted at this time, and the rock borders are unpainted. I will work on those areas next, [...]
Again, I like to save time while painting. So, instead of taking down all of my photo references so that I can have an uncluttered background to evaluate the painting, I keep a bunch of empty mats in a variety of sizes handy to create a temporary mat around the artwork. This working mat helps [...]
Last summer a client commissioned me to create an original painting featuring her house and flower gardens. Here are the steps I use to create a painting with specific subject matter.
“Ultima Thule Experience” original acrylic painting in pointillism by Gail Niebrugge. Sold. Many years ago we became friends with a young couple, Paul & Donna Claus, who operate an adventure guide service and lodge, Ultima Thule Outfitters, in a very remote part of the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. Located 100 miles from the Chitina Airport [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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. [...]
I designed the logo for the Copper Basin 300 sled dog race in 1989 using research from my visit to the village of Atmutluak, Alaska.
“Race Day” 18″x24″ pen,ink and watercolor painting ©Gail Niebrugge Another image painted as a result of my visit to the village of Atmautluak, Alaska. New subject matter can be overwhelming, sometimes it takes awhile to absorb what you see and find the true gems that should be painted. More tomorrow. Gail Niebrugge, Alaska Artist
“Yupic Funeral” 22″x30″ acrylic painting on rag paper ©Gail Niebrugge If my memory serves, the painting “After School” is underneath this painting. I painted this from my research in the Yupic village of Atmautluak, Alaska, showing the overflow crowd at the funeral of a village elder.
“Cruisin’ the Boardwalk” 12″x30″ watercolor painting on rag board ©Gail Niebrugge Here is another painting from my visit to the village of Atmautluak, Alaska, showing my eskimo buddies that shadowed my every move. I was fascinated that the houses sat in pools of water during break-up, and no one seemed to mind. More tomorrow. Gail [...]
“After School” 22″x30″ acrylic painting on rag paper ©Gail Niebrugge This original painting was inspired by my stay in the village of Atmautluak, Alaska. Unfortunately I was not satisfied with the image and after a year of working on it and fussing with it I painted another image over the top. I’m so glad that [...]
“Atmautluak Village” 3′x 8′ acrylic painting on four joined masonite panels. Several years after this project was complete I heard that the Atmautluak school burned to the ground and was a total loss, so I do not know if this painting still exists. Unfortunately this is the best photo I have of the finished work. [...]
A close-up detail of the fourth panel of “Atmautluak Village” painting for the Atmautluak, Alaska, school. More tomorrow. Gail Niebrugge, Alaska Artist
Close up detail in the “Atmautluak Village” painting for the Atmautluak, Alaska, school. Look closely and you can see the seam connecting panels together. More tomorrow. Gail Niebrugge, Alaska Artist
A close up detail of the “Atmautluak Village” painting for the Yupic eskimo school in Atmautluak, Alaska.
Here is a photo of my work space in the Atmautluak, Alaska, school library with the nearly finished painting of race day in the village. More tomorrow. Gail Niebrugge, Alaskan Artist
This photo shows me (on the left) and an employee at the Atmautluak school, Alaska, standing on the library coat rack inspecting the wall painted by the students to be used as a dark frame for the original artwork. More tomorrow. Gail Niebrugge, Alaska Artist
Atmautluak students preparing the wall for artwork photo. After the funeral things came back to normal at the Atmautluak school. The location for the finished painting was a white wall above the coat rack in the school library. Since the painting was a winter scene consisting of shades of white we decided to paint a [...]
Yupic eskimo funeral Atmautluak, Alaska photo During my stay at the Atmautluak school, an elder in the Yupic village died. As I worked on the painting I could watch the village activities from the window. Students did not attend school for several days and airplanes full of mourners from all the surrounding villages showed up [...]
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...]