Creating in Alaska

Creating art in rural Alaska.

Sketching Alaskan Shrimp

Posted on May 23, 2013 by Suzie Althens

Over Mother’s Day weekend, my husband and I traveled to Prince William Sound to fish for shrimp and halibut. Once more the halibut won, but we had lots of fun and found some succulent shrimp. The land and sea were fairly colorless. Our boat and gear look so colorful.

We saw goats eating on rock cliffs and scores of migrating waterfowl.

There was a lot of snow on shore, but we walked along the tide line and I sat on a rock to sketch.

A hummingbird flew inside the cabin the first morning. He loved my red scarf.

He flew by several times that day. My scarf must have been so disappointing to him.

We used three shrimp pots and picked them twice a day and brought home 140 shrimp. The striped one is actually called a Coonstripe Shrimp. Didn’t know that until we got home.

“River Memories” Collage

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Suzie Althens

The collage for Fairbanks Pioneer Home is finished! There was a little hold-up when I checked on the new container of varnish and read, “do not ship for one to two weeks after applying varnish”. Those instructions weren’t on the other containers I had so unfortunately it was delivered a bit later than I’d intended. I’m excited to see photos of it installed. Here are photos of the finished piece and some details.

“River Memories” by Suzie Althens 11 feet long by 32 inches high

I included a special memory of mine you can see in the detail below. The lady on the left holding the little girl with dark hair could be my grandmother and me years ago.