Gail Niebrugge's Blog
The Palmer Courthouse commission consists of seven irregularly shaped panels, all quite large, and is requiring many, many, hours layering dots. I’ve begun the second layer on all seven panels and will not begin the final details until all panels are at the same level of completion. The panels are taking on a very dark [...]
These thumbnail details show how beautiful and varied in color the first layer of dots are as I apply them over the loose brush stroke under painting on the seven panels for the Palmer Courthouse Entry. The key to my style of representational realism is choosing the correct values for the dots, any color can [...]
“Departure” 12.5″ x 30″ acrylic/watercolor painting ©1987 Sold. This painting represents a significant change in my style, a departure if you will, and the beginning of my use of the technique of pointillism (tiny dots of color). In 1987 I was confined to bed rest for a myriad of back, neck and shoulder injuries so [...]
I’m ready to let this painting rest for awhile, it might be finished, it might not. I’ve been too close to it for too many days to be objective anymore. This is the point where propping it up inside a studio mat and sitting it on the easel for a few days serves as a [...]
After a little touching up to the mid ground I’ve started adding pointillism (many small colorful dots) to develop the moss and grasses in the foreground. One of the interesting aspects of this part of the Mc Kinley Bar Trail is the orange/red/gold mossy covering on the ground near the water. Combined with the green [...]
I don’t usually go into detail at this stage of the painting, the bottom half remains untouched but for the under painted watercolor wash. But something tells me that I won’t have a whole lot to do on the bottom half, it has a nice feel already, I’ll just pull it together with some darks, [...]
The sky and distant mountains are not finished, but their values are well enough established that I can move into the middle ground and plant trees. I’ve defined the light and dark shapes of the middle ground but the foreground grasses have not been touched. They remain as the original under painting at this stage. [...]
I had forgotten how much fun it is to paint over the watercolor wash coated with acrylic gel, using acrylic paint in dots! I love it and wonder why I quit. The photo of the early phase of the painting “McKinley Trail” above shows that I’ve begun to fill in the sky using gradation from [...]
“Kennicott Melt Pool” original painting in pointillism by Gail Niebrugge, original painting sold, limited edition prints sold out a few Artist Proofs are available. One day while poking around the rubble of the historic copper mine looking for a fresh subject to paint or a new view of the Kennicott, I decided to hike out [...]
“Tall Tales” original acrylic painting in pointillism by Gail Niebrugge, sold. Back to my series on living and painting in the Wrangell-St. Elias region of Alaska. The telling of tall tales is an annual tradition in McCarthy held on the street in front of the lodge one Sunday each summer. Tourists and locals are entertained [...]
“Showers” original painting in pointillism by Gail Niebrugge, original sold, limited editions sold out, a few Artist Proofs available. The McCarthy Lodge during fall with the icon old truck. I put the truck in the painting because I think it is an important part of the history of this remote town. I have no idea [...]
It is an artists paradise in Wasilla right now, the hoar frost is exquisite! Every time I look outside the windows of my studio I see another landscape that takes my breath away. The fog bank that has caused this is predicted to dissipate, soon another weather phenomena will dominate. Will we have more snow [...]
Details are complete, the painting is finished. “Wing Dancing” 48″ x 60″ acrylic on canvas in pointillism showing Sandhill Cranes in the courtship dance. It was fun and satisfying to paint something large, and took approximately nine weeks to complete. More bird paintings can be found on my website; wildlife. Gail Niebrugge, wildlife artist
Another day of painting and I’m still concentrating on the background around the cranes, whenever I think I’m ready to paint details on the birds I am distracted by the negative space around them. Above is a close up showing the many dots and colors in the foreground grasses. I think the upper third of [...]
At this point unless you can study each stage carefully and compare, the changes I’m making are subtle and may not be obvious. I’ve added a lot of lighter colored grasses to the foreground, and began to darken the top third of the background in the left and right corners. I’ve also blended the grasses [...]
I’m working on refining all aspects of the painting, a little here, a little there, more variation of values in the grass and darkening the colors in the background behind the birds. Next, I began work on the Sandhill crane wings, defining shapes and adding a some blur to the feathers at the wing tips. [...]
A close up detail of pointillism painted on the foreground grasses. You can see many, many layers of color at this stage. I’m concentrating on making the foreground beautiful close-up as well as from the distance. A large variety of values and hues have been added as dots to form the grass. The above photo [...]
Adding many more dots to the grasses I’m continuing to darken the middle ground (the background in the center third of the canvas) and darken contrasting areas in the foreground weeds. I’m doing exactly what I didn’t want to do, and re-painting all the grasses. I didn’t like the first version. I’ve also added a [...]
To give some contrast to the light color of the birds necks I darkened the yellow grasses in the distance and added a great many pale blue, bluegreen, and blue violet dots to the middle of the canvas. For the moment, this seems to work better. I also brought back some of the darker accents [...]
I’ve added some detail and rhythm to the lower grasses and lighter toned dots to the Sandhill cranes. I’m not satisfied with the pale background behind the light tan cranes in the middle one third of the canvas. I’m going to find a value and color of acrylic paint that will convey my idea and [...]
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...]