Barbara Craver
primarily uses soft pastels of various brands on Wallis Museum Grade paper, an archival quality sanded paper. Landscape, figures and portraits are favorite subjects. Going out to paint with the Plein Rein Painters is her favorite Saturday morning activity.
Cristine Crooks
loves to use watercolor to capture favorite views while traveling and painting outdoors with Plein Rein. Although it is a challenge to use watercolor outside in Juneau it works well to convey our moist, marine climate. She hopes that her 25+ watercolor sketchbooks will provide inspiration for larger paintings someday. She enjoys the camaraderie of the Plein Rein Painters after garage sales on Saturday mornings and looks forward to the next painting adventure with the group.
"Painting is just another way of creating a diary."-Picasso
Mary Claire Harris
is a retired teacher and librarian who has been taking art courses at the University of Alaska focusing on drawing and sketching. She is now combining her interests in birds, travel and art.
Constance Baltuck Hartle
has lived and painted in Juneau for over twenty years. She paints in watercolor, acrylic, and oils, and has been inspired by the Plein Rein painters to work outdoors year round. "Spending time with the Plein Rein painters has been wonderful for me. This spring, we drove through Auke Bay to paint out the road while the temperature sign registered 43 degrees week after week. In freezing sunshine and in drizzling rain, we painted, sometimes sharing hand warmers, sometimes umbrellas. We painted, we learned from each other, and we watched the ice melt and springtime unfold. The darkest day in Juneau provides better light to paint by than any number of bulbs in a studio. While working outdoors can sometimes introduce unplanned elements into a painting (bugs, maybe, or sand), it also incorporates, at least in spirit, all that the painter experiences: the sound of birds or rushing water, the fragrant scent of the woods, and all the other sensations we enjoy when we stop to observe, for a few hours, the beautiful world we live in."
Jim Heumann
lives in Juneau and paints in watercolor, oils, and acrylics. Inspired by the great northern landscape painting tradition; he joined Plein Rein in 2001. He appreciates his appointment with brush and palette each Saturday morning and is most thankful for his supportive family, fellow painters, the other artists in the community to whom he owes so much.
Cynthia Johnson
is grateful for the encouragement and friendship of Juneau's Plein Rein Painters. The group's collective energy and enthusiasm have been great motivational forces. She has been exploring the possibilities of pastels, still life and capturing light.
"As the variety of work by the Plein Rein Painters suggests, we each see and express our vision of the world in a unique way. Yet, I suspect the reason we respond strongly to a particular work of art has to do with what we share in common. There is a bond when the artist and viewer have experienced some essential aspect of the "spirit of place".
Jane Lindsey
works with mixed-media on paper, and frequently uses graphite, china markers, oil pastels, colored pencils and pen and ink. Jane has a MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago in painting and drawing, and loves looking at the landscapes of Marsden Hartley and Arthur Dove. Getting up early on Saturday mornings and working with the motivated artists in Plein Rein has really been a joy.
Pua Maunu
learned to paint in San Francisco with artist Carlos Loarca from 1978 to 1983. She was mentored in the style of the abstract muralists and learned to consider the environment in the abstract--as a series of lines, intersections, layers and light. The magnificent natural beauty of Southeast Alaska and water, in its liquid, solid or evaporative form is a constant subject of her paintings. She uses the changing light on the landscape as her inspiration to create paintings en plein air (rain).
Alexis Rippe
Discovered pastels in a drawing class at University of Alaska at Juneau and became totally enamored with them. She works in soft pastels on Wallis (a sanded paper) . She finger blends her paintings which gives them a different look and has been know to sport numerous band -aids on her fingers after an extended painting session. Her favorite subject matter is the sky because it is always present and forever changing, creating a constant learning field. She's often late to plein rein sessions because she stopped to "catch a snippet" of the sky. She credits the plein rein group as the reason to get up early on Saturday mornings and go out with great people to completely experience painting in the moment with it's sounds, smells and elements.
Jane Stokes
has been involved in creative endeavors all of her life, and has recently focused on works on paper. She usually begins with something seen, that may evolve on its own over time. She is stimulated by southeastern Alaska in particular, but certainly not exclusively. Joining Plein Rein in 2001 has led to many fulfilling Saturday mornings, with inspiration and encouragement from the others painters.
Paul Voelckers
is as an architect with undergraduate and graduate work in drawing, graphic composition, watercolor, and ceramics. His primary medium is watercolor on heavy paper. He is attracted to watercolor as a medium because of its quick, spontaneous nature, and its affinity to the weather and setting of Juneau. The Plein Rein focus on working from nature adds a challenge of composition and timing, very different from a studio setting.
Mary Pat Wyatt
recently retired as museum curator for the Juneau-Douglas City Museum. As an artist she is strongly influenced by the American Arts and Crafts movement and enjoys working with line and color in watercolor, pastels, mixed media and ceramics. A winter serigraphy class at UAS and a spring trip to Turkey and Greece inspired images in this exhibit. Mary Pat received her B.A. in studio art and cultural anthropology from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and her M.A. in art history and anthropology from the University of Alaska Anchorage.
Natasha Zahn-Pristas
has dabbled in ceramics & photography, but feels watercolor allows her the fluidity and immediacy she needs to create her images. She enjoys sketching while traveling, but now aims her pencils & brushes at familiar surroundings as well: the garden, the beach, and the scenic beauty of Alaska.
