Alaska, with its magnificent mountain ranges and rugged coasts, has long been an ideal setting for artists of all kinds. From depictions of nature to scenes of the unique subsistence lifestyle of rural Alaskans, the paintings that locals love and recognize capture the wild essence of the land and its people.
Sydney Laurence (1865-1940)
Born in Brooklyn and trained as an artist in New York City, Sydney Laurence later moved to Alaska, settling in the village of Tyonek and later Anchorage, where he made his home until his death in 1940. His tonalist oil paintings showcased the beautiful settings in which he lived and worked and the lifestyles of those around him. Living in Anchorage, he captured many photographs of the early Tent-City. He became an iconic figure, most known and loved for his stunning depictions of Denali, North America’s highest peak.
Rie Muñoz (1921-2015)
After a visit to Juneau in 1951, Rie Muñoz decided to stay. She fell in love with the people and landscapes of Southeast Alaska and made it her home. As a Bureau of Indian Affairs educator, Muñoz taught for many years in rural Alaska off the coast of Nome on King Island. She is best known for her whimsical and colorful watercolors capturing scenes from everyday rural life. Muñoz also worked as writer and artist for the Juneau Empire and as a museum curator.
Fred Machetanz (1908-2002)
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Sign up to our Free Weekly NewsletterA significant amount of Fred Machetanz’ work centers on the Arctic life and landscape in which he lived for many years. After a visit to Unalakleet in 1935 to see his uncle, he was deeply inspired by the community and wildlife around him and focused on portraying both in his paintings. He was particularly captured by the light of the Land of the Midnight Sun and his paintings often had an ultramarine base on which he layered the rest of his colors in a transparent glaze technique. Machetanz left Alaska during World War II but returned later with his wife, writer Sara Dunn, and settled in Palmer. His work also includes a significant number of stone lithographs.
Byron Birdsall (1937-2016)
Originally a history teacher in California, Byron Birdsall eventually made his way to Alaska to work in advertising. His landscapes, portraits, and closeups of the flora and fauna of Alaska are a compilation of five decades of life in The Last Frontier. Best known for his watercolors and many scenes of Anchorage, Birdsall also painted with oil and authored several books including Byron Birdsall’s Alaska and Other Exotic Worlds. He was well-recognized for his ability to capture natural light in his work.
Barbara Lavallee
Lavallee’s bright watercolor depictions of Alaska life can be seen in galleries across the state. Known as both an artist and educator, she has lived and worked in Alaska since the 1970s when she moved to Sitka to teach art at Mt. Edgecumbe High School. She has illustrated a number of children’s books, most notably Mama Do You Love Me? by author Barbara M. Joosse. Focusing on the people of Alaska rather than landscape, her body of work showcases the rich cultures of the state’s inhabitants, communicating a sense of movement and exuberance in her watercolor portrayals of rural life.
Norman Lowell
From wall-sized mountainscapes and night skies to small scenes of snowy trees, each of Lowell’s stunning oil paintings draw in the viewer as if they were standing in the landscape itself. Lowell is a self-taught painter who moved from Iowa to Alaska in 1958 with his wife Libby and their first child. They settled in Anchor Point where Norman and Libby still live on their original homestead site. For many years, they lived in Anchorage where Lowell opened a private art school and taught, but in the 1980s they returned to their homestead and eventually expanded it, opening a gallery where decades of Lowell’s work can be seen during the summer months.
