PALMER — What do you get when you have four children, no dental insurance and some talent to spare? If you are artist Shane Lamb, you get a sweat deal.

In January, Dr. Tony Paden of Pioneer Peak Dental Center in Palmer, made a trade agreement with the highly sought-after landscape artist that would keep both men satisfied.

Paden, a fan of Lamb’s popular landscapes of Alaska, wanted artwork highlighting all the best of Palmer’s 70 years in a 2-by 4-foot painting. In return, Lamb’s family would have clean and healthy teeth for years to come.

ROBERT DeBERRY/Frontiersman Valley artist Shane Lamb sits in his Palmer studio in front of a recently finished piece that will be auctioned off by the Monroe Foundation in Fairbanks. The piece is of Creamer's Dairy in Fairbanks. Lamb is well known for his historic paintings.

Lamb quickly began working on an oil piece titled “Palmer Pride,” depicting downtown Palmer’s historical and current attributes.

Meanwhile, Paden worked on building a special display wall at his dental office, sized just right for Lamb’s mural and equipped with special lighting to showcase the painting to all of his clients.

“It’s a $15,000 trade,” Lamb said. “I finished it in February and then went over and hung it. Basically, I now have a dental credit with my four children. I’m pretty sure they’re taken care of until they get out of high school. It’s not an unusual thing to trade my pieces for services or products. It is a commission.”

The life-like painting highlights sneak peaks of downtown Palmer, from the hustle and bustle of Arctic Avenue to the predominately snow-capped Pioneer Peak in the background on a fall afternoon.

Lamb had been taking photographs of Palmer in various stages of metamorphosis since the 1980s, ready to incorporate the best of all into one final piece. Here was his chance.

In “Palmer Pride,” Lamb mixes the city’s old-school edifices from the days of the colonists with the new structures of today.

“This is a glamorization of Palmer, from an artist’s rendition,” Lamb said. “There is no exact time frame to which all the pieces exist; rather, the best things of Palmer put together, so there’s a real feel of authenticity.”

Lamb said “Palmer Pride” holds memories for all Palmer-ites, young and old.

Included are the old DMV, the Krowley Service Station, Matanuska Maid, the Palmer Library and the water tower that stands over the city. Missing are current structures (such as the Palmer police station) and various others that litter the landscape today.

Lamb said he made sure to showcase elements such as the Palmer Train Depot and its winding track as it looked when still heavily used during the mid-1900s.

“There was a lot of time and work I put into the railroad tracks,” he said. “There is so much grass on them right now you don’t see the tracks, but it’s part of Palmer’s history, so I made them like they were.”

Lamb said he hopes people visiting Dr. Paden’s office to see “Palmer Pride” take with them a remembrance of the town that is special and unique to those who reside there.

“I want them to realize what a remarkable setting Palmer sits in and to think of all the businesses that have come and gone over the years, and be glad Palmer’s part of their lives,” he said. “People can see what it was like when the city was nothing but a tent city, or when the library was first built, or see Pioneer Peak in the background and still be in awe, like I am, to be in such a beautiful part of Alaska today.”

For Lamb, a local resident for 32 years, living as an artist in Alaska has = many perks.

When Lambe was 12 years old, his father abruptly packed up their home in northern California and moved the family north for new opportunities. He had caught the Alaska bug. Lamb said his father had the notion that an adventure in the wilderness of Alaska would lead to a fruitful and active life for his family.

“We had no ties or affiliations up here,” he said. “We came up and he pursued real estate. That was that.”

In Lamb said that in 1976, Palmer was quite a different sight to behold.

“There’s a lot more pavement now,” Lamb said. “When I moved here, all the roads were dirt, except on the main streets. Virtually everything has been paved now. It’s a nice little town and has a hometown feel to it.

Lamb, along with his brother and sister, grew up in a colony-style house built in 1935 of logs out on Outer Springer Loop. Later they moved to downtown Palmer in the building where ABC Travel Time now does business.

For that first year in Alaska, Lamb said he instantly fell in love with the beauty of the Mat-Su Valley’s landscape.

Knowing their son had a knack for sketching at any chance he got, his father met up with a lady in town who taught art and they hired her to instruct him.

“That was my introduction to painting,” he said. “But at 12 years old, my paintings were very ugly. I did one of Matanuska Peak and another one which was just an unnamed mountain in black and white. I have never stopped since.”

Lamb painted incessantly throughout high school. His high school art teacher for four years, Neal Epps, became his inspiration, guiding Lamb to follow his heart.

“He’s the same high school art teacher who helped start off Ed Tussey and is fairly known for getting a bunch of us now established artists started in our careers in Alaska. He gave me inspiration to become an artist in life.”

Lamb graduated from Palmer High School in 1982. He said his biggest fear at that time was whether he had the talent to actually make a career out of being an artist, so when it came down to going to school and choosing a profession of study at Brigham Young University, he chose to study medicine, but not for very long.

“My plans were to become a chiropractor,” he said. “During my second year, I really had to commit to what my real major was going to be. I had taken art classes on the side and excelled at it. I just became so discouraged with math and science that I knew I would go insane in pre-med school. Or, (I could) go with my heart and stick with art.

Lamb finished up his degree in fine arts at BYU with flying colors and married his sweetheart, Erin, in 1987. Erin, a nursing student from Wisconsin, was on board for something new and exciting for the couple to experience.

“I knew I wanted to be an artist at that time, but had no comprehension on how that was going to happen,” he said. “I did know I wanted to be back in Alaska for sure.”

In 1990, an Alaska housing slump allowed the Lambs to purchase a nice home in Palmer for a low price. The timing was just right.

“I wanted to come back and I knew I wanted to paint the beauty of Alaska. Erin is from Wisconsin and had moved around a lot, and being from a cold climate she knew she’d fit right in.”

Back in Palmer, Lamb began to fine tune his craft, painting around the clock. His attention to details meant a typical piece would take weeks to complete before he could sell it. But Lamb knew the money was in the craftsmanship, so he took his time on each of his oil pieces.

One of his first canvas paintings of Palmer was of the old, broken-down barns scattered around the Valley from the days of the colonists. Mesmerized by their historical beauty, Lamb painted the massive structures in their natural settings, adding life to seemingly dead buildings.

“Here I am, I have my degree, I want to be an artist, I had just finished two colony barn paintings and I’m realizing that no one is painting the history of Palmer. So I decided that’s what I will do.”

Lamb joined the local artist co-op and displayed his first pieces at the old Cottonwood Creek Mall in the early 1990s, selling his first colony barn paintings to a local art buff for $800.

“The first thing I did was buy my wife a sewing machine,” Lamb said. “She had become a nurse at the old Valley Hospital, and I thought I want to do this for her, for sticking it out.”

Lamb soon became known in the Mat-Su Valley, and later statewide, for his dazzling and one-of-a-kind landscapes. His creations have taken people all over Alaska, from stream beds to mountain tops, on a journey of a lifetime without leaving the comfort of the room.

Not a prolific painter, Lamb said he typically produces four or five paintings a year. He said even though his snail pace can at time be a bit discouraging, he still has improved his productivity over the past 10 years.

“I eventually was able to hire people to help me,” he said. “I can paint more now and as a result have become more productive.”

Lamb’s pieces have been commissioned by the state of Alaska government offices, private collectors, small to large businesses and interested buyers.

He is so sought after his waiting list for a commissioned work is now two years out.

“I’m very busy these days,” he said.

Lamb has been able to cash in on his handiwork in other trade deals as well. In addition to receiving dental work for he and his family, Lamb has also traded paintings for a new rock fireplace, excavation for his new home and medical services, including the delivery costs of his third child.

Lamb said Dr. Paden’s “Palmer Pride” painting, hanging at Pioneer Peek Dental in Palmer, is a first for the local dental professional. He said although Paden almost never accepts trade work for his services, he decided Palmer needed the recognition it deserves.

Contact J.J. Harrier at valleylife@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.