School Demonstration

Painting demonstration by Karen Lynn Ingalls, at St. Apollinaris School. Here - painting upside down.

In December, I gave a demonstration and talked to the students at St. Apollinaris School in Napa. Sandra Cassayre Moore, their art teacher, who invited me, is also a fellow Napa Valley Open Studios artist.

The students had lots of great questions!

The students had lots of great questions! And we packed a lot into our time. You can see more about it, including photos Sandra just sent me of student's paintings, on my art workshops website blog, here, at NapaValleyArtWorkshops.com.

Installing "Sunset Meadow"

I've been quiet lately! (Trust me, it's only online, and it's mostly been because I've spent the last year working very hard for Napa Valley Open Studios.) Coming back to the blog, I found some draft posts I never published (how could I have missed them?). I thought I'd share them with you now. 

Sunset Meadow • © 2010 Karen Lynn Ingalls

(lit only by a spot light and natural lighting, on an overcast day)

In this post, I shared photos of Sunset Meadow, and some of my other paintings, in the home of a collector who has also become a good friend. Since these were taken, he sold this home and moved the paintings to his new place – I'm glad to have these images! The sky of Sunset Meadow is the image I used for my blog banner above – in case it looks familiar. So, here's the post:

Here are some photos of Sunset Meadow in its new home....

Sunset Meadow in its new home.

Carneros Creek Cows is on the wall to the left of the doorway.

© 2010 Karen Lynn Ingalls

I love it against the brown walls. The photographs above were taken on a dark day, and the painting seemed to glow even more than usual.

Old Barn, New Vines • © 2010 Karen Lynn Ingalls

A number of my other paintings keep it company. Here are some more photographs, taken on a sunnier day. Old Barn, New Vines was painted of vineyards on Franz Valley School Road, on the way out to where my studio is now. The new vineyard is all grown up now, and the scene looks quite different.

Mayacamas Meadow • © 2010 Karen Lynn Ingalls

The trees in Mayacamas Meadow are actually not too far from the tree in Sunset Meadow. It is, in fact, the same meadow, though the paintings were painted six years apart. I now live just around the corner from it (I'm so lucky to be in the same neighborhood as these beautiful spots!).

Old Barn, New Vines • © 2010 Karen Lynn Ingalls

These two paintings, A Gathering of Oaks and View towards the Lake, were painted of scenes on a small local ranch, where I used to live.

View of the main room, taken when Sunset Meadow was first installed • © 2010 Karen Lynn Ingalls

Art makes a difference in a home.... Whatever kind of art we choose to live with, whatever colors we surround ourselves with, it all affects how we feel, which changes our relationship to the rest of the world. Beauty does matter. I'm glad to see how my paintings worked in this beautiful space.

Dusk in the Vineyards - III

Dusk in the Vineyards • a painting in process • © 2012 Karen Lynn Ingalls

Here's more of the process of painting Dusk in the Vineyards, with a bit of a surprise.... Above, I've painted over the orange I'd begun to add in the last phase, and brought a lighter shade of robin's egg blue into the sky. I used a scumbling technique, so hints of the colors underneath are still influencing the colors on top.

Dusk in the Vineyards • a painting in process • © 2012 Karen Lynn Ingalls

I've brought more darks, and developed the colors a little further, in the trees and vines. Notice the touches of deep red and light blue in the grape leaves? The grape stakes and soil are developed a bit more, and I've brought a little more of a hint of the apricot color back into the sky, too – the idea is to develop its color in layers.

Dusk in the Vineyards • a painting in process • © 2012 Karen Lynn Ingalls

The sky's apricot colors are a little more toned down here, and the colors of the vines and soil lighter and more vibrant – because of a change in the light in the studio. Lighting makes a huge difference, doesn't it? I photographed this the next day, when I arrived at the studio.

I photographed each of these stages on the easel, as the painting was in process, so the colors vary in each photograph depending on the time of day and whether there are any reflections casting light onto the canvas.

Dusk in the Vineyards • a painting in process • © 2012 Karen Lynn Ingalls

At this point, I thought the painting was getting verrrry close to completion. I brought a scumbled layer of a partly transparent tint of greenish blue down into the sunset's color, leaving only hints of the apricot along the horizon, and creating more of a transition between the colors.

Dusk in the Vineyards • a painting in process • © 2012 Karen Lynn Ingalls

The process of painting is like a good conversation – I need to listen as well as talk. As any painting progresses, the painting itself will have more to tell more – and I need to listen, to learn where it wants to go. In this case, it wanted more orange in the sky, so I obliged.

Dusk in the Vineyards • a painting in process • © 2012 Karen Lynn Ingalls

Then began a process of taking the sky in the direction it wanted to go, tilting parts of it towards green or yellowy-orange, or apricot, or the very subtlest of robin's egg blue.

Dusk in the Vineyards • a painting in process • © 2012 Karen Lynn Ingalls

The sky is a lighter blue here, and I've brought more yellowy oranges into the sunset.

Dusk in the Vineyards • a painting in process • © 2012 Karen Lynn Ingalls

Here, the last colors of the sunset are toned down again, and I've scumbled some slightly deeper tints of robin's egg blue into the top portions of the sky. (The little shadow at the top was cast by the top of the easel.)

So what, you might wonder, was the surprise? The surprise was the sunset. It wanted to be in the painting, to a greater degree than the palest hints of apricot that my photograph had captured. This painting came to me with a title (now and then they do announce their presence), Dusk in the Vineyards. So I'm wondering... should I rename it Sunset in the Vineyards? Hmmmm... something to ponder....

Dusk in the Vineyards - II - a painting in process

Dusk in the Vineyards - a painting in process • © 2012 Karen Lynn Ingalls

Here's the next stage in the process of the painting. I've added touches of an apricot-ish color in the sky, to indicate the last bits of sunset. There's still a lot more to do....

Dusk in the Vineyards - I - a painting in process

Dusk in the Vineyards - in process • © 2012 Karen Lynn Ingalls

On my easel now - the canvas is 4' high x 4' wide, and the subject is a vineyard in Knights Valley at dusk. I began with a deep blue underpainting, and drew in my composition. The dark lines were my original drawn lines, covered over as I changed the composition.

Dusk in the Vineyards - in process • © 2012 Karen Lynn Ingalls

Here, I've defined the vineyard rows and structure of the trees a little more.

Dusk in the Vineyards - in process • © 2012 Karen Lynn Ingalls

The next step is bringing color into the large area. Looks nice and messy, doesn't it? It's better that way! Honestly... it makes the painting more interesting. We're also very, very early in its development....

Would you like to see more? You can see the rest of the process to date at my website, at http://www.karenlynningalls.com/1/post/2012/01/dusk-in-the-vineyards-i-a-painting-in-process.html.

Memories of bohemian New York - I

Willard Bond and Jean Steubing Maggrett share memories of bohemian New York • photo © 2011 Karen Lynn Ingalls

Last week, I spent a wonderful afternoon with Jean Steubing Maggrett, whom I've known for something over nine years, and Willard Bond, the father of my friend Gretchen. They met for the first time last week,  but both of them lived and painted in the heady creative days of Greenwich Village and the Lower East Side in the 1940s, 50s, and early 60s, and Gretchen and I got to listen to them share their memories.

From Jean's memories of Hans Hofmann, the Art Club, and the Abstract Expressionists, to Willard's memories of his studio in an old synagogue in the Lower East Side and playing drums with jazz musicians, to what they've done in the interim, it was a warm and lively conversation. 

Read more here, at: http://www.karenlynningalls.com/1/post/2011/12/memories-of-the-new-york-school-i.html.

December already?

Black Stallion Winery Barrel Cellar

Where does the time go? I've been busy everywhere but here for the last month and a half... and I'm now fortunate enough to have a working computer again! I'll post again soon.

In the meantime, here's what I'm currently preparing for - a holiday event at Black Stallion Winery just north of Napa on December 10th....

http://www.karenlynningalls.com/1/post/2011/12/black-stallion-winery-holiday-open-house-art-show.html

Napa Valley Open Studios 2011 – II

My thanks to everyone who came by for a visit during this year's Napa Valley Open Studios! You made it a wonderful success.

Standing surrounded by my paintings • photo by LeeAnn Ho

After all our preparations, the two weekends of Napa Valley Open Studios flew by like a whirlwind! My actual studio is waaay out in the country, where not too many folks would be likely to venture, so I was more than pleased when glass artist Ed Breed invited me to join him at his glass studio in St. Helena.

The main "gallery," as I finally got it arranged by the last weekend

Ed worked hard to create a beautiful, as well as workable, space. I was able to set up just outside, in front of his studio, and to show work all along the driveway to it.

The main "gallery," with visitors!

We had somewhere between 100 to 200 visitors a day. Ed gave glassblowing demonstrations throughout each day, except for a bit on the first Sunday, when the temperature neared 100° outside (and reached 115° in his studio).

Looking back from the main "gallery" area, down the driveway

I was too busy talking with people to give a demonstration, but I did bring an easel (on the left of the photo above) with a work in progress, so I could explain my painting process to anyone who had questions about it.

Drawings, and drawings with acrylic wash, at the entrance to our Open Studio

I particularly appreciated a couple of opportunities to slip in and watch Ed's demonstrations (glassblowing is a fascinating process, and he is particularly good at explaining it).

In the front rack, my original pen-and-ink sketches and block prints. To the left,  greeting cards from  my relief-print-and-stencil paintings.

Since it's an open studio, not a regular show, I love getting to bring lots of different kinds of my work to share. This time, I brought pen-and-ink sketches and block prints, as well as cards I'd made (on the second weekend) of relief-print-and-stencil paintings. I brought graphite drawings with acrylic wash, and graphite drawings, of still lifes, too. I know people come expecting very colorful landscapes, but I like to surprise them with some of the rest of what I do.... (This year I left the collage paintings and the costumed model paintings back in my barn studio.)

A table with matted reproductions of my dragonfly paintings, original drawings with acrylic wash, and a portfolio

It's amazing how much there is to share! Figuring out how to fit things into the space is always interesting. I kept refining and changing it a little as I put things out each new day.

The literature table

What makes it all worthwhile is getting to share my work with my guests. Maybe they're friends, or acquaintances, or students, or collectors, or people who've been following my work, or fellow artists. But at least as often they just stopped by because they've seen the signs, or they found me in the catalog for the first time, or they're really here for the glassblowing and to see Ed, and I get to introduce my work to them for the first time. Chatting, sharing the wonder and passion of artmaking, of creativity, of the creative process and all the stuff we make, is the fun of holding an open studio.

Guests looking at my work

And sometimes people come back to follow my progress, each year or every other year, and we can talk about where I'm going with my work (or what is it with all the old work!). I like seeing what people respond to.

A guest looking at some of my matted reproductions (I print them myself)

County Supervisor Diane Dillon even stopped by between meetings, and graciously talked shop with a friend of mine about a local issue in between looking at paintings and watching Ed blow glass.

With County Supervisor Diane Dillon

My special thanks to all the people who took home a piece of my artwork with them, and to the good folks who helped me hang paintings on the last Sunday (after the rain finally stopped fifteen minutes before we were supposed to open). I appreciate you!

Holding "Hillside Vineyard (Tilted Heart)," my catalog image for this year's open studio  •  photo by Gunter