Gail Niebrugge's Blog
“Wildflowers” 8′ x 32′ mural from the “Mural-in-a-Day” project, Seward, Alaska. After more than a year of waiting, my mural “Wildflowers” was installed on September 14, 2007 in Kawabe Park, downtown Seward, Alaska. It looks fantastic and was well worth the wait! Seward is working hard to become known as the Mural Capitol of Alaska. [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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. [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
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...]