Bardarson Studio
Watercolors from the far North

Abstract Watercolor Artist Dot Bardarson

Dot Bardarson enjoys living in the moment when she is in her beautiful studio.  The panoramic view of mountains and wetlands is the perfect background for her creative time there, time that seems endless on one hand and “never enough” on the other.  She loses track of it when she is engulfed in a project there.

She is primarily a watercolorist, with awards and commissions, both private and from the State of Alaska.  She was named “Queen of Arts” by the Seward Arts Council in 2014.  Outside of Alaska, she was named “One of TOSCA’s Favorite American Artists.” in 2017. She is the recipient of the 2019 Alaska Governor’s Life Time Achievement Awards in the Arts.

Dot’s background is varied and colorful.  She was raised on the East Coast and educated at Lasell College in Boston, then the University of Washington.  She came to Alaska as a bride and deck hand aboard a salmon tender. As her husband moved up to management in the fishing industry, she found herself raising their 3 children in outlying canneries at Chatham in SE Alaska, then Port San Juan in Prince William Sound, and at a crab plant in Unalaska. Husband, Linne, changed companies in 1970, to manage a fish plant in Seward.  This is where home is now. Dot always found time to paint watercolors during their fish adventures.

 

Sketching and painting became serious business in Seward, now that Dot’s children were in school all day. She free-lanced.  She also taught in the “Artist in the Schools” program. Seward provided her with an opportunity to be leader in the arts, organizing statewide juried shows and a local arts organization.  She also acted in plays and created set designs for the local theater group, Port City Players.

She served 6 years on the State Council on the Arts, traveling to meetings all over the state.

Dot built and operated the popular Bardarson Studio in the Seward harbor area for 20 years, representing 35 Alaskan artists. Then she threw herself into planning and painting murals with the Seward Mural Society, in which murals are painted as a group, locally and as far away as Obihiro, Japan. As a result of her efforts, Governor Sarah Palin named Seward the “Mural Capital of Alaska”.

Dot likes to tell a story with her art, which is full of movement and color, and may reflect her sense of humor into the bargain. You can order from this website with Paypal or directly from the artist at 907 224-3131. or email to her at dotbardarson@gmail.com.

Visit: 2019 Awardees