Alaskan Raven Studio

Art in Alaska. Story of an Alaskan artist.

  • About Raven
  • Paintings and Prints
  • Ravenistas
  • Studio
  • in private collections
  • raven ramblings outside the studio window

my story

I was a little girl in the branches of a treehouse.
Just a few boards wedged into some branches, really.
I remember leaning back on the tree trunk,
my legs dangling in empty air, a breeze in my hair.
Robins, Bluejays and squirrels shared my tree with me.
We watched the bees on the flowers in my father’s garden and inhaled the sweet smell of summer.

Then came high school.

The other kids knew what to say to each other
when they gathered in the gym after school. I wanted to walk in but I didn’t know what to say and the clever kids were always
laughing, laughing, laughing.

I didn’t want it to be at me.

I traded my tree house for an easel.
I knew how to have a conversation with a canvas.
A canvas is like a book, except that shapes and colors
are the words.

I was surprised when others were able to hear the stories
in my canvases. It seems they, too, were struggling to get
by without a script.

A canvas and a palette full of paint allows me to speak
with others. With a brush in my hand, I can share my
robins, bluejays, squirrels and bees. I can share my
tree house and the flowers in my fathers garden.

I can share Alaska.
I can reveal fascinating people.
I can wrestle polar bears.

You can too.

To face a bear is to face your own fear.

I paint bears for you to face.
I paint motion holding still.
I paint things that surprise me.

Do they surprise you, too?

What could be more surprising
than to live in a land of midnight sun?

Do something unexpected today. Surprise yourself.

And I will tell you why I sign my paintings, “Raven.”

photo of the artist

What’s New?

Receive the inside scoop of what’s happening in Studio Notes,

Raven Ramblings

Shipment arrives

“Sterling, look at that!” “Look at what, Felix?” “That huge box. From Canada.” “Looks like the artist received another shipment of Kroma paint. Watch, she’ll spend the rest of the day arranging it in her studio. All those tubes of paint go in some sort of order.” “Paint? What is that?” “Paint is color. She […]

Edges are important

“Sterling, What is the artist doing now?” “What do you mean, Felix?” “She spends lots of time brushing paint on the sides of her painting. The edges. You know what I mean?” “She makes changes on it when she changes the front of the painting. The sides appear to be important to her.” “But why?” […]

More Adventures

contact me with questions or comments

Alaskan Raven Studio
PO Box 80231
Fairbanks, Alaska 99708
USA
alaskanblackbird@yahoo.com

 

Represented by:
Well Street Art Co.
1302 Well Street
Fairbanks, Alaska
907 452-6169

Stephan Fine Arts
939 West 5th Ave.
Anchorage, Alaska 99501
USA
(907) 274-5009
http://www.stephanfinearts.com/

more about Raven

I ventured to Alaska before there was an oil pipeline and fell in love with the gnarly spruce trees, intense weather and mountains I could touch. Very different from the landscape in St. Louis. I was looking for different. The spruce trees: those scraggy, wizened, lanky conifers danced onto the first page of my sketch […]

  • About Raven
  • Paintings and Prints
  • Ravenistas
  • Studio

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