Gail Niebrugge's Blog
At this stage I’m continuing to add dark colored dots to the lower half of the painting, the bushes near the bottom have not been painted and will be completed during final details just before the finish. The same is true for the wolf figure. I’m establishing the patterns of the darkest shapes in the [...]
After studying the rough wash underpainting I made the decision to reduce the size of the wolf image, it seemed too big and dominated the landscape. I want it to blend in and be hard to discern in the finished work. At this stage I’ve begun to layer the darkest value dots along the lower [...]
I’ve studied the research material from my Artist-in-Residence in Denali National Park last summmer and two ideas surface repeatedly, one is the view from the John Murie cabin of the East Fork River and the other is a view of Denali from the McKinley Bar Trail. I’ve chosen to begin with a painting of the [...]
I’m thinkin’ “Monarch” is finished It really didn’t require much more detail to complete, my effort concentrated on the reflected light in the shadows on the flower petals and creating color variation in the background. It might seem odd, but the negative space (background) in this painting took the most time. I’m not interested in [...]
It always fun to start adding details, here is a close-up of part of the wing of the Monarch butterfly. Here is a close-up of the body of the Monarch, you can see all of the overlapping dots in these two details. Even though I’m beginning to develop detail, some of the main components of [...]
It may be hard to see, but I’ve been refining the patterns in the background, softening some and darkening others. I’ve changed the colors, some areas are blue green, others red violet, and others green. It is subtle, but much more interesting. I’m not sure I’m done yet, I’ll wait awhile and contemplate…… The butterfly [...]
At this point I’m contemplating the shapes and hues in the background, and I think I’ll modify some….they seem too regular, to much the same. Some should be larger, some lighter, some darker, more variety. I’ve begun to add definition to the flower petals and the center. Nothing has been done to the butterfly for [...]
I’m developing shapes using hues and shades of blue and green dots in the background behind the butterfly and the flower. It could work out fine or I might change the whole thing, we shall see how it goes. Gail Niebrugge, Alaska artist
At this point I’ve added more dots of color to the butterfly wings and began to define soft shapes in the background on the lower right by adding darker shades of blue and green. I’m contemplating varying the background values throughout the painting, a few dark dots have been added along the left side. This [...]
I’m adding more colored dots to the butterfly and the flower shape. The background remains unchanged. All of the work at this point is nothing more than laying in values and color, many changes will take place before the painting is finished. Gail Niebrugge, Alaska landscape artist
I’ve filled the background with dots in shades and hues of blue with a slight variation in value, and began adding color to the butterfly and parts of the flower. All of this work is very preliminary at this point, many changes will take place before I am satisfied. The background could change entirely, I [...]
Many more dots in shades and hues of blue are added to the background of the painting. At this stage the value of the blue is pretty much the same, I will begin to lighten or darken areas of the background later. Gail Niebrugge, Alaska artist
I’ve begun to apply the first layer of dots to the background of the painting, multiple shades and hues of blue. The dots are applied very random and the values are applied equally random at this stage. Gail Niebrugge, Alaska artist
This sketch is from my trip to New Zealand where I saw many butterflies in the botanical gardens, I’m painting a Monarch butterfly as it feeds on a flower. Gail Niebrugge, Alaska flower artist
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 [...]
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...]