Gail Niebrugge's Blog
Dusk arrives at 4:30PM, we are gaining more daylight every day. Yesterday at sunset a cow moose and her two calves strolled through the yard browsing on willows and alders, the cow found my treasured China Rose bushes and managed to prune them into little stubs. After feasting in my garden they moved into the [...]
Thanks to cold weather and continual snow, my office is getting a long overdue organization. Occasionally I stop, stretch, look out the windows and look at the beauty of colored lights buried on snow laden trees. A joyous sight, it brings a smile. During the inclement weather I’ve cleaned-up the website, organizing the “Original Paintings” [...]
The weather at my Alaska art studio continues to be cold and calm. This morning the thermometer registered -14 degrees and no wind, a gorgeous layer of snow gently covers trees and plants providing insulation from the deep freeze. Here is my rose garden with snow covered rocks creating a beautiful winter landscape in [...]
What a contrast this week has been, from desert sage brush decorated with tinsel and upside down plastic cups, to our snowy front yard with spruce trees laden with tiny lights covered in new fallen snow. Barring another warm front, Christmas will definitely be a white one this year. Bob has been shoveling walkways and [...]
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 [...]
I love a fresh snowfall, everything is transposed. I wish the landscape could stay this way, but the inevitable wind, sunshine, and activity will diminish the fluffy white shapes of new snow. Meanwhile on my daily walk I enjoy finding snow flowers and other fun creations. Gail Niebrugge, Alaska artist
Beautiful, fluffy snow accumulated over several days, our yard is a winter wonderland. Fresh snow coated the thin ice crusted lake where a Super Cub on skis took off yesterday. I’m thinking the surface is much too thin for this, certainly no one should walk out there yet. At 4 degrees farenheit it won’t be [...]
I met Fritz early one morning to pick out boulders for the planter, soon he arrived with the big rocks and the back hoe to place them exactly where I wanted them. The bucket on the back hoe is like an extension of his hand, he made short work of the rock placement. The [...]
Wow, the side yard is very formalized with this very sturdy planter and the addition of gravel all around. Now I need to add a few boulders and plant the perennial shrubs so that everything will be ready to grow and bloom in the spring. I’m going to love this new addition to the side [...]
I’ve been working on ideas and plans for the north sloping bank beyond the frame shop just west of the vegetable garden for quite some time. Many ideas have been considered. After consulting my favorite landscape guy, Fritz Hoffman of Rock Ridge Services, a plan was developed. Since the slope faces north and is shaded [...]
Our warm September ended yesterday morning with a frosty 28 degree farenheit reading on the outdoor thermometer. I left footprints in the fuzzy coated grass as I walked toward the lake, the white carpeted dock was ice crystal slick. This will be the end of the Nasturtium blooms, one of the few flowers still showing [...]
The new vacuum sealer arrived by UPS truck today just in time to help preserve the last plants from the garden. All evening we blanched and packaged big, juicy Brussel Sprouts for the freezer. Love the new sealer, it is a hefty-solid unit and can be used outdoors. This will come in very handy next [...]
We’ve had several stunning, sunny, warm fall days nicer than last summer, perfect conditions for harvesting the garden. Bob and I dug a bounty crop of sweet, ripe potatoes. Here I’m shown digging the Yellow Fingerlings, they were stacked inside the dirt mounds like cords of firewood. We also harvested Reds, and my favorite, Yukon [...]
I’ve put off this chore for way too long, mostly because I didn’t know how to go about dividing my perennial iris plants. They were so huge this year that they virtually smothered other plants, and I resorted to chopping back some of the long green foliage so that the other plants could get a [...]
The stray bird feeder seed finally bloomed! Sunflowers grace the empty broccoli bed. Won’t be long before the first frost, it will sweeten the brussel sprouts, carrots and potatoes all waiting to be picked yet. Our season is nearing the end, the fall color will soon dominate. Meanwhile I can enjoy Sunflowers, and during winter [...]
Sunflowers sprouting in the vegetable garden planted by nature from flyaway bird feeder seed are beginning to open. More yellow petals are revealed daily. A couple more days to full bloom. Meanwhile we have been busy shucking peas, baking beets, roasting early potatoes and savoring the sweet tender taste of home grown Alaska vegetables. I [...]
Various colored lilies make my garden a joy in August. Bearded Iris bloom in June, Himalayan Poppies in July and now lilies add bursts of color to enhance the perennial bed. First the more traditional orange and yellow bloomed, now these deep red, a soft pink and an interesting peach colored variety are showing off. [...]
In our yard the wildflower Fireweed has reached the top, folk lore says that snow follows six weeks later. I’m certainly not ready, I hope this old legend forecast is wrong. Nevertheless, the nights are growing cooler, daylight is shortening and I can feel fall in the air. A certain crispness and fresh smell envelopes [...]
Seeds from the nearby bird feeder planted themselves in the Broccoli bed and are ready to bloom any day now in the vegetable garden. Last week I harvested the last of the broccoli and cauliflower and am going to enjoy the added bonus of sunflowers instead of looking at empty beds. I’ll take more photos [...]
While we were away a few days the cabbage seemed to double in size, just the perfect amount of rain and sunshine this year. This red beauty made a huge salad, crispy/tender, and very tasty. I’m glad I have a fence around the garden this year, because as soon as the cabbage are picked the [...]
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...]