Original Art, Prints and Cards
First I lightly sketch the subject onto a canvas using a pencil, after that I flung paint all over the original sketch from several large brushes and created a random splattering of various colors. When the splatters and drips dried I applied acrylic paint as a transparent wash to fill in large areas with pale [...]
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 [...]
This is the part that separates my painting technique from a pure watercolor. I carefully coat the under painted watercolor with a layer of acrylic gel. If I use too much water in the gel it will smudge the under paint, it takes just the right amount of gel/water to work. I don’t mind if [...]
Close ups of the wild abandon I use when applying the under painting of watercolor. I show very little regard to the drawing underneath at this stage. Salt has been sprinkled onto the wet surface to create the snow flake look, and paint is splattered on the surface. The finished under paint for the new [...]
Lately I’ve been painting on canvas, and enjoying the springy texture of the stretched fabric. But, I ran across a series of work I did a few years ago using an under painting of watercolor on heavy rag paper and I immediately yearned to paint with that method again. So, using reference material from my [...]
The wolf is too visible in the Redo stage 4, my last post. I want him to blend into the landscape like a shadow, camouflaged the way they actually appear in nature. So I repainted the water behind the wolf figure, darkening it with lots of small dots until the animal blended into the landscape, [...]
. Here is the re-worked painting with the new wolf image. The mountains and sky have been grayed back, the water behind the wolf lightened to silhouette the animal. I’m going to wait a few days and digest these changes before I declare the painting finished. I’ll turn it upside down and evaluate how the [...]
After painting a lot of dots in the background, I concentrated on painting the new wolf image. At this point I am fairly satisfied, but decided that I needed to tone down and grey back the distant mountains and the sky. So I spent most of the day refining the entire painting so that it [...]
After searching through my “Wolf” files I selected another photo to use. I’ve been photographing the wolves of Denali National Park for more than a decade and have lots of good reference material from which to choose. Next, I sketched the outline of the new wolf on the white painted spot and began to add [...]
I’ve been looking at this “finished” painting for a few weeks, now that the hectic holidays are over and the stress level is lowered, and I realize that I’m not satisfied. I’ve decided to take out the little wolf and paint a larger one. The wolf is too small for the landscape, and I really [...]
“East Fork Wolf” 15″ x 30″ acrylic on canvas. A little more work refining the background mountains, adding more light and shadow, touching up the highlights on the water, toning down the middle ridge on the left and punching up the foreground with some dark hues, when I stepped back to take a look from [...]
More dots of warm yellow orange and acra violet are applied to the distant peaks and the sun drenched ridge along the river, and warm colored dots highlight some of the gravel bars in the middle ground. I’ve worked on the composition a bit striving to eliminate the strong diagonal pull from lower right to [...]
At this stage I’m adding color to the middle ground hills, at first it seemed enough, but I’m going to enhance the color even more to show the glow of the evening setting sun. I’ve begun to add detail to the foreground rocks and foliage, and I’m roughing in the base color and shape of [...]
I’ve begun work on the middle ground, defining color and shape of the hills and establishing highlights and dark values in the gravel bars. The distant river gravel is in the shade, this is a painting about fleeting light and shadow. Some areas are highlighted as the sun shines through openings in the clouds, others [...]
As the painting progresses the dots become more and more dense, and multi-colored. The foreground gravel has more dots of lavender, purple, and blue violet, as I work my way toward the top of the canvas I’m adding many more hues and shades of similar values to the water and gravel bars. The object is [...]
I’ve changed the direction of the diagonal lines in the lower third of the painting and began to add mid value dots. I’m still focusing only on the lower part of the painting, only a single value of dots has been applied to the green ridges in the top third. Everything is subject to major [...]
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...]