YOUNG AT HEART

MAT-SU — Jeanne Young, a Mat-Su Valley oil painter, has settled down from painting among the bears in Naknek to painting among the bathers at Wasilla Lake. Her show at Vagabond Blues during March and April portrays local people as her main subject matter; however, this exhibit is probably even more about her passion to share the thrills of “what things have excited (her) eye” than about any subject matter.

Jeanne talks about her adventurous preschool days living in logging camps in Wrangell and Petersburg with her family.

“My dad was a tree feller; I have pictures of him standing on top of a fir tree he had just climbed and cut the top out of (while using) no safety lines,” she said.

Other remembrances include her dad “bringing a bear into the living room and skinning it out.”

About her dad’s influence, she says, ”He’s the one (who) told me at age 8 that if I wanted to be an artist, all I had to do was practice and work hard.”

Later, living with her family in Oregon, she took art classes in high school and received tutelage from various artists after graduation. This opened new doors and fueled her creative urges.

A major breakthrough came when an instructor at Chemeketa Community College in Oregon invited her to a demonstration at an art show.

“It was the first time I had watched someone paint from life,” she said. “Until then it had all been from photographs. It was so magical and exciting to watch the portrait of the woman emerge on his canvas. I wanted to do that.”

She and her husband Ben were married about a month when his company in Oregon closed and he landed a job in Hoonah while visiting Jeanne’s uncle. Later moving to Naknek, she had many interesting encounters with the high tides while painting on the beach.

Tides interfere

“There was one night I was painting on the beach and so focused on what I was doing that I didn’t realize the tide had come in until I heard it lapping at my tires,” she said. “The beach was covered with rocks and boulders so you really needed to follow the trail they cleared each year, (but it) was covered with water. I found out what a 13-inch ground clearance (on a vehicle) looks like; I had to stop and move large rocks many times (to drive out).”

Another time on the beach in Naknek the tide was coming in when she recalls, “I (drove) down the beach only a little ways and tried to turn around. I turned into a soft spot … and the front end of my truck sunk down to the running boards. I had to run to the nearest house a couple of miles away and phone for a wrecker to pull me off the beach. We both barely made it.”

If it wasn’t the high tides, it could be the permafrost causing problems as in the time she recalls, “I tried to park the truck on a spot I had just driven over with a four-wheeler a couple weeks before. It was warm enough that the mud was dry for a few inches, enough to support a four-wheeler, but not enough to support my truck. That time I sank front and back past the bumpers. No tide to worry about though, so I could get a tow at my leisure.”

Family affair

“It’s never been dull painting in Alaska with four kids,” Young said. “In Bristol Bay, (my family and I) practically lived on the beach during the summer months. The commercial fishing industry was so exciting to watch. We would go to the mouth where the most aggressive fishermen would all be racing for the best position and dropping their nets … just feet off the bank of the river, where the kids would sit and eat pizza while I painted.”

She talks about a favorite spot to paint “by an abandoned cannery building from the early 1900s” where the kids could play on the beach. When her husband arrived on the four-wheeler to take them clam digging was when she realized, that she had “globs and streaks of paint all over the bug net (covering her face),” a necessity when there was no wind.

Eventually, she says, “The manager gave me a key to the building so I could go inside and paint anytime I wanted. It was filled with such history and character that I never tired of exploring it.”

Bear encounters

Being the adventurous sort and living in an area “heavily populated with bears,” Jeanne would “remind the kids every few minutes to watch for bears (while painting). A number of times (she) had to pack up the kids quickly because a bear was heading (their) way.”

On a tamer day while painting in plein air, (the French term for painting outdoors), she says, “I’ve had chickadees try to get into my paints; they must have thought my beautiful piles of paint looked like ripe berries.”

“I’m usually pretty anxious to get out and paint, so I’ve been out many times when it’s hovering around freezing, painting until my fingers are so numb I can’t hold my paintbrush.”

Jeanne has become quite accomplished in a very short time, mostly from diligence and desire, and taking a few inspirational workshops. She took her first drawing workshop in Seattle in 2004, and a watercolor workshop in Scottsdale, Ariz., in 2006, which improved her artistic ability.

“I then went home and worked for a couple years to take the skills I had been taught as far as I could on my own,” she says.

While homeschooling four children ages 3 to 12, she says, “I can’t always drop what I’m doing and get out the paint, so I make mental notes; and when things come together for a scene I’ve been wanting to paint, them I’m ready.”

Night owl work

“Most of my painting during the school year happens from 8 p.m. to midnight and on weekends. If they (the children) are all cooperating and working on things they can do on their own, sometimes I can paint during a weekday,” says the artist and dedicated mother. “I think it’s good for kids to see … first-hand what it takes to follow a dream.”

When questioned about how she and her family migrated from the Bush to the Mat-Su Valley, she explained the circumstances.

“We really wanted to stay in Alaska and we had our last two children at Mat-Su Midwifery,” she says. “When having children from the Bush, you have to fly in at least two weeks before the due date. … So when we decided we wanted to try civilization, this seemed like a good place to be.”

When asked about her future in Alaska she says, “We plan to be here at least until the kids graduate high school. We’d like to visit other places, but I think Alaska will always be home.”

About her art career, she says, “I’ve only been actively pursuing a career since last summer … (and) I’ve enjoyed being part of a thriving art community.”

Besides her current solo show at Vagabond Blues in Palmer, Jeanne Young was featured artist at Town Square Gallery last fall.

SECOND SATURDAY EVENTS

Dorothy Page Museum

323 N. Main Street in Wasilla, 373-9071

Valley Arts Alliance Iditarod Art Show

View paintings, photographs, sculptures, ceramics and more. Reception from 2-4 p.m. Admission is free and refreshments will be served.

Hitchcock Piano Studio

950 Edinborough Drive off W. Arctic, Palmer (between swimming pool and Mormon Church).

Mini-recital by piano students digging into 30 years of duet collecting. Guests welcome, 2-4 p.m., refreshments available.

Primrose Retirement Community

889 N. Elkhorn Drive, Wasilla, 315-4025

Alaska Revealed, by Photographer Greg Gusse. Reception 1-3 p.m.

Turkey Red

550S. Alaska Street, Palmer, 746-5544

The Alaska Gallery presents paintings by Julius Cavira. Reception 2-4 p.m.

Vagabond Blues

642 S. Alaska Street Palmer, 745-2233

Paintings by Jeanne Young. Reception from 2-4 p.m.

Valley Winery and Brewery

1705 N. Ranch Road on the Palmer-Wasilla Highway, 357-9463

Grand Opening celebration featuring cast-iron sculptures from the 2009 Art on Fire event, 2-6 p.m. Refreshments will be served.

Madd Matters

105 E. Arctic, Palmer, 745-6045

Yard Art, by multiple artists. Reception 6-8 p.m.

Pandemonium Booksellers and Café

1325 E. Palmer-Wasilla Hwy, 376-3939

Springing into Spring, paintings by Peggy Tessema Compton. Reception 6-8 p.m.