Already a celebrated Alaska landscape and wildlife artist, Gail Niebrugge turned to pointillism, literally by accident. For more than 20 years the Palmer artist has been perfecting her pointillism technique, where tiny points of primary colors are used to create a larger impression of a wide range of secondary colors and shapes.
It was in 1986 when Niebrugge’s physical and artistic life changed. She was riding her moped on a sunny morning in Hawaii, hit a curb and flipped over. Slightly embarrassed, Niebrugge got up and shook it off, thinking how lucky she had been. Although her injuries seemed minor at the time, she would realize months later she had sustained major back injuries from which it took two years to recover. Her neck and back muscles had been tangled and bruised. Eventually, Niebrugge was unable to lift her arms, move her head from side to side or negotiate a small staircase.
 '€˜Kennecott Mine'€™ by Gail Niebrugge is an example of pointillism, where tiny dots of primary color are used to create larger images and the appearance of varied colors. |
Surgery after surgery followed by painful rehabilitation didn’t seem to help. With nothing but bed rest to look forward to, Niebrugge’s husband, Bob, set up an easel and paint station at her bedside. Once able to pick up a brush and begin creating, Niebrugge eventually was able to tap little dots of paint on the canvas.
For 20 minutes at a time each day, Niebrugge sought relief from her back pain and boredom with a dot-making style of painting that, although time consuming, brought new life to the Alaska landscapes she was fond of painting.
Pointillism became a part of Niebrugge’s world.
“It happened by complete accident,” Niebrugge said. “But I’ve grown to love it. Now people know me as the dot-to-dot lady. It’s quite painstaking, to say the least.”
A standard 3- by 4-foot pointillism painting by Niebrugge can take up to four months to complete, starting with just a penciled sketch and ending in a full-color masterpiece. Although Niebrugge identifies pointillism as her main style, she does just fine in other mediums now that her health has been restored.
“I just try to make it look right,” she said. “If something else happens and it looks better that way, then I use it. It tends to confuse people sometimes.”
Niebrugge doesn’t believe painters should choose and stay with any one style; they should let their painting techniques evolve.
“I’m able to put all kinds of colors next to each other with dots to make the color more vibrant,” she said. “It gives each piece depth and texture too. If I were to go back and paint with a pallet knife then I wouldn’t make prints.”
An artist’s paradise
Niebrugge fell so in love with Alaska while on vacation in 1976 she never returned to her former home of San Diego. Instead, Niebrugge and her husband, Bob, established a residence in the Interior settlement of Copper Center, where she hunkered down and began to paint.
“I’ve always been an artist,” Niebrugge said. “I used to sit around drawing pictures of the wilderness outside San Diego and was always in awe of the beauty of nature.”
Before discovering painting, Niebrugge’s interest in artistry took a different slant.
“I was going to be a fashion designer,” she said. In 1959, Niebrugge attended San Diego Junior College for commercial art and was the only woman in her class. She received a two-year vocational certificate in art, got married and began teaching herself new techniques.
Once Niebrugge settled near Glennallen, she realized there was much more to painting than she expected. Trees, mountain landscapes, riverbeds, wildflowers and the nearby wildlife were popular subjects. Niebrugge paints as realistic as she can, following in the footsteps of artists she respects, like Norman Rockwell and the Wyeth brothers.
“I started out doing mostly realistic pieces when there were more abstract instructors in that era,” she said. “I painted a number like Van Gogh, with a pallet knife, but realized I enjoyed photo realism more.”
Working out of her home and displaying art at the Glennallen Tastee-Freez, Niebrugge began to slowly get some attention from tourists and visitors to the store at which Niebrugge and her husband worked.
Pieces like “Kennecott Mine” and “Chapel on the Hill” became early Niebrugge favorites in her pen-and-ink drawing period, as recognizable today as Barbara Lavallee’s Native village pieces were in her time.
Niebrugge paints shadows and textures with ease; petals on flowers like they were photocopied straight onto the easel. Her realism catches the untrained eye off-guard.
Nature was her boot camp.
Living near Copper Center, Niebrugge and her husband spent most of their time in seclusion, dodging close encounters with wildlife and riding bush planes in and out for supplies.
“The scariest black bear experience I had was in the park staying in one of the public cabins,” she said. “The bear got up so close we had to use bear spray, allowing us to get back to the gun. I was shaken, but then I wanted to paint the experience afterwards.”
Shaken, Niebrugge took her close encounter home with her to capture the heart-stopping experience. “Cohabitants,” a painting of Niebrugge’s black bear encounter, sold well, as did the others.
Niebrugge identifies her painting technique as slower than other landscape painters. She also doesn’t prefer painting outdoors.
“I’m unable to get it done before the mosquitos get to me,” she said. Instead, she goes out with sketch book, camera or portable watercolor set and puts together her sketches to paint in her studio during the winter.
A move to the Valley
After her art was received well in Glennallen, people began requesting prints of her work in the late 1980s, prompting Niebrugge and her husband to spend full-time efforts on her art. Her first professional gallery shows were in Fairbanks at the House of Wood, followed by showings at The Gallery, next to other newcomers like Byron Birdsall, Lavallee and Jon Van Zyle.
“Those were the days,” she said. “I’d haul my work into town, no cell phone mind you, and work with these other incredible artists also trying to gain exposure. It was a big deal.”
Niebrugge decided to move to Palmer in 1995 to be closer to her clientele and open a studio in her home. Since then, Niebrugge has invited the public to her home for an annual open house to showcase her new and old pieces for sale.
Niebrugge has her work hanging at Town Square Gallery in Wasilla as well as paintings at the Miniature Show at The Gallery in Palmer. Her familiar landscapes are seen in galleries and art shops from Ketchikan to Nome, as well as on her Web site. She recently completed a large 8-by-34-foot landscape at Kwabe Park in downtown Seward. The massive wildflower mural was painted in a color-by-number style with the help of more than 30 assistants.
Niebrugge was also recently appointed to the Alaska State Council to the Arts by Gov. Sarah Palin to oversee all the state grant funding to the arts and work on other local projects that will enable artists, like herself, to receive more exposure in the art world.
Having also taught workshops on pointillism and watercolor painting in the past, Niebrugge plans to host more workshops in the future, but for now is content with being a full-time artist.
“For an artist to make it in this world you have to be able to put in as much as you can,” she said about long hours spent creating. “I tend to do more than I should, but it’s what I love to do.”
For more information on Gail Niebrugge’s artwork and gallery hours, visit Niebruggestudio.com.
Contact J.J. Harrier at valleylife@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.
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