For 35 years, artist Alexandra Sonneborn has been sharing her passion for painting vibrantly colorful scenes statewide.

From exhibits showcasing her color-filled gardens, landscapes and still-life scenes, like her pieces currently on display at the Homer Public Library, to her commissioned work painting people’s pets and gardens, to the workshops she hosts such as her annual plein air paint-ins, Sonneborn is known statewide for her colorful oil and pastel paintings.

“With pastels, you get pure color, more than with any other medium, and with oils, the easiest medium to work in, you really get the feeling of textures and bright, vibrant colors,” she said.

Vibrant colors are in fact a center point of her work and what inspires her creativity.

“I’m really fond of color and color mixing,” she said. “My aim in painting is to capture the particular way that light affects color to create an emotion in the viewer.”

Currently on display at the Homer Library is a body of work that includes both oil and pastel paintings, showcasing her painted pets and floral scenes.

“Patience” is a pastel painting of her neighbor’s dog that she painted from a photo. In this painting, the grey Weinheimer dog with its blue eyes and red bandana looks directly at the viewer as if waiting to go for a walk, or for a treat.

A large oil painting shows a bouquet of a variety of flowers in blue, white, yellow, pink, red, purple, orange and green, with a gray background. This painting was created 10 years ago and is one in a series of still-life florals that Sonneborn imagined, sketched out and then painted.

Another untitled large oil painting depicts a variety of flowers resting on tables, including blue and purple lupine next to a small cream-colored round table on which a white and yellow bowl rests. In the center of the painting is a square blue table with a large green vase filled with orange tulips, a blue plate of cut cantaloupe and a potted plant from whose tall, green stems bloom tiny red flowers. Behind this table to the left is a round green table with a green bowl on top, behind which is a rose bush with pink blooms. This scene was painted eight years ago after Sonneborn returned from a trip to France.

“For some reason, the orange tulips reminded me of Paris,” she said.

With her process of beginning a painting and returning to it time and again, this painting took her a couple of weeks to complete. It currently hangs in her Anchorage home where she painted it.

Sonneborn is as passionate about painting as she is about inspiring others to paint. Over the years, she has taught classes around the state, through the University of Alaska Anchorage and on her own, offering weekly art classes for teens and adults in her Anchorage and Homer studios, Paintspot Studios. Here, she introduces the joys and challenges of painting to individuals new to the mediums and offers advice to intermediate and advanced painters. In her workshops, painters progress at their own speed in a friendly and non-competitive atmosphere. While she teaches beginner to advanced students, several of her current students have been with her for years and many have had their own exhibits.

“I enjoy helping others in their creative endeavors, showing people how to use the materials and offering advice if they want it,” she said. “I think that painting is such a great thing to do for your mental health. It helps you relax and the feeling of finishing a painting is a wonderful feeling.”

For the past eight years, Sonneborn has been hosting “On the Scene in Alaska,” plein air (outdoor) painting workshops that take place over a weekend in June in Seward and in August in Homer. During these events, artists come together to paint and on the last day of the workshop, a local venue hosts an exhibit of the work produced.

“Participants have come from all over Alaska as well as the Lower 48, Hawaii, Canada, Russia and France to paint in these communities that I think are two of the most scenic spots in the country, if not the world,” Sonneborn said.

Raised in Vermont, Sonneborn was introduced to painting at the age of 8, when her Uncle Douglas Hay, a New England portrait artist and teacher, gave her a set of tube watercolor paints and later, when she was in high school, taught her pastels. With few art classes offered at her school, Sonneborn painted at home, receiving instruction from her uncle, who often visited in the summer months, and drawing and painting on her own.

At the University of Vermont, she took all the art classes that were offered. As they were not enough to provide a major, she majored in English and minored in Psychology. Later, she attended the Rhode Island School of Design and studied painting.

Setting her art aside to tend to her family, she worked non-artistic jobs for a time, as a hospital social worker, a car salesperson and an office manager. In 1978, Sonneborn, her husband David and their four children moved to Alaska for his job and she worked as his office manager. It wasn’t until 1982, when relatives came to visit, that Sonneborn decided to pursue her creativity full time.

“My husband’s Aunty Betty announced at the dinner table that she was disappointed that I wasn’t using my art talent,” Sonneborn said. “She wanted me to sign up for a drawing class at the university and she was very pushy, so I said OK, and I’m so glad I did.”

Sonneborn took art classes in Anchorage for several years, and in 1988 she exhibited her paintings publicly for the first time. Collaborating with fellow artist Susan Lindsey, the pair showcased their individual paintings at Artique, Ltd. in downtown Anchorage, a gallery known for being the first in the state to represent artists in the marketing of their work.

“This first showing was the first time I started to see myself as a professional artist,” she said. “Once I was able to paint full time, I concentrated on finding my own painting style. Although that is still evolving and I hope always will be, I can fairly confidently say that my work is mostly representational, influenced by the impressionists and colorists, and generally cheerful in mood.”

When Artique, Ltd. closed, Sonneborn moved her work to the nearby Stephan Fine Arts Gallery in Hotel Captain Cook. Today, her colorful paintings can be found at galleries around the state, including at 2 Friends Gallery in Anchorage. And, as she has for the past 35 years, she continues to exhibit once or twice a year.

At 80 years old, Sonneborn’s creativity is not slowing down. In addition to painting landscapes, florals, gardens and commissions, she paints heavy machinery, including trucks and Caterpillar equipment.

“I think I inherited this weird passion for large machinery through my family,” she said. “My older sister drove a school bus and my brother had a master’s in business and worked in the field for years before quitting and finding his happiness in becoming a truck driver.”

No matter the scene, Sonneborn’s paintings showcase her passion for capturing the essence of a moment in time, infused with color.

“It is incredibly rewarding to have people tell me they are cheered throughout the winter by seeing the vibrant colors of their gardens in my paintings or that they can feel the aura of their beloved pet in a pastel I’ve created,” she said.

Sonneborn’s work may be seen in numerous galleries around Alaska, and at the Homer Public Library through May. For more information about Sonneborn’s upcoming exhibits and workshops or to commission a painting, contact the artist at 907-301-7162 or paintspotinak@aol.com

“Crete” is an oil painting by Alexandra Sonneborn completed in 2014. Photo by Christina Whiting

Four of Alexandra Sonneborn’s numerous paintings are on display at the Homer Public Library in the Fireplace Lounge through May. Photo by Christing Whiting

Anchorage and Homer artist Alexandra Sonneborn works on a pastel piece depicting the view from Baycrest Overlook in her studio in Homer, Alaska in March 2024. Photo by Christina Whiting