Napa Valley Open Studios 2010 - second weekend

Entrance to the Calistoga Art Center,

where Yvonne Henry and I welcomed visitors for Open Studios

For the second weekend of Open Studios, I brought in over twenty portrait studies, to add to the paintings and drawings I showed on the first weekend.

Some of my portrait studies

Here you can see some of them. I painted these in my costumed model painting and drawing group in Carmel, between 1997 and 2000. Each of these was done from a 1 1/2 hour long pose. I switched to drawing for my last months in the group before moving back up north, drawing large graphite line drawings on paper. I may share those in my Open Studio next year.

Pencil drawings – two Baby Squashes and a Baby Pumpkin

Last year, the Arts Council asked me to present an exhibition at the Napa Senior Center. The seniors enjoyed it – and it wound up being there for nearly a year! I collected it in time for Open Studios. I called the show "Simple Pleasures." It included six still life pencil drawings, of which these are three, and four larger graphite drawings with acrylics, used in a watercolor manner, which I also brought to Open Studios.

This was the first year that Calistoga artists were listed at the beginning of the catalog, rather than at the end – and we had about twice as many visitors as in previous years (which seems to have been true for other Calistoga artists I've talked to so far). It was a pleasure to get to meet everyone, and to share our work with them!

The magic of light

Detail of Knights Valley Autumn, backlit

On Saturday, during Open Studios, Yvonne Henry suddenly caught my attention, and directed me to my painting, Knights Valley Autumn. It was about 3:30, and the light streaming through the window and door behind the painting lit up some of the colors and made them radiant, especially where the red lines showed, and in parts of the light-colored vineyards. Light is magic; it creates wonderful, fast-changing moments. As we watched, and the sun moved, the light moved to different parts of the painting, making them glow. It was like a special benediction on our weekend....

Napa Valley Open Studios 2010 - first weekend

Interior of the Calistoga Art Center, transformed for Open Studios, during a brief lull

This year for Open Studios, I'm sharing the space at the Calistoga Art Center, here in the Napa Valley, with my delightful friend, the wonderful photographer Yvonne Henry (who is also this year's catalog cover artist). It's a big space, once we have it all set up. Here are a few photographs... I'll post more later.

Yvonne's side of the space, with work from her "All Things Organic" series on the walls, and more work from it and from her other series in print racks and on tables

A mostly–late winter–early spring series, including sheep, vineyards, and mustard.

More of my work

The golden colored paintings, of late summer–to–autumn. I brought in Morning Celebration (resting on the floor), so visitors could see its progress, but it isn't yet finished.

We've taken down all but the wall work, so classes can get their classroom space back, but everything will go back up Friday night for this weekend, our last for the year. This weekend I will also bring at least twenty of my old costumed model studies, too, as Open Studio specials. Last weekend, I just ran out of time to make one more trip to the studio for them....

This year for Napa Valley Open Studios

This year for Napa Valley Open Studios, I will be at the Calistoga Art Center (where I teach) with Yvonne Henry. We are Studio #4 on the map (you can download it here), at 1336 Lincoln Avenue in Calistoga, California, on the second floor.

You can also visit Calistoga artists Jocelyn Audette, Ann Shelby Valentine, Jeff and Sally Manfredi at Calistoga Pottery, Charlie de Limur, and Betty Jo March, while you're in the neighborhood.

Although the first weekend has passed, you can still visit us on September 25 – 26, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. I hope you'll head this way, come visit, and let us share with you the beauty we see in the world.

Just-Spring

Just-Spring • 10"x10" • © 2010 Karen Lynn Ingalls

This little (10" x 10") landscape is a little more Fauve than much of my work. But the sense and idea of early spring demanded more color everywhere. I like the blue and purple trees.

The title comes from the beginning of an e.e. cummings poem, In Just-:

in Just-

spring when the world is mud-

luscious ...

I added more color popping out, in the tree blossoms, in the grasses, in the shadows – but this feels to me very like that mud-lusciously verdant time of year. Thank you, mr. cummings.

Long Shadows, Late Afternoon

Long Shadows, Late Afternoon • 11"x14" • © 2010 Karen Lynn Ingalls

Here is one of the smaller paintings I've been working on for this weekend's Napa Valley Open Studios. This scene is near the northern California ranch of friends, a place with beautiful rolling hills, meadows, and woodlands of oak and madrone. I've painted other scenes nearby (including one very near to this) before, but a good bit larger. I keep coming back to the photographs I've taken there – it's an inspiring place.

In my studio

Karen Lynn Ingalls in the studio • © 2010 Nathan Ingalls

My nephew, Nathan Ingalls (a young cinematographer – you'll be seeing more of his work in years to come, I know), took this photo of me in the studio earlier in the summer. This was one of the "arty" angles he was having fun with – taken through my paint brushes. In it, I'm facing the painting that is in this year's catalog for Open Studios (it's not on the web, though).

Karen Lynn Ingalls in the studio • © 2010 Nathan Ingalls

Yes, that's an ironing board serving as my taboret (a table for holding one's palette and paints). It works well for painting on location, too, believe it or not. You can adjust it to different heights for sitting or standing. I got the idea for it from a photograph of a painter – maybe Frank Gannon? – working en plein air (in the open air, on location), in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.

I work from my own photographs, though I don't usually print them four to a page. Now that we have digital cameras, I crop my compositions on the computer before I print them.

Although it's a little dark, you may be able to see behind me, in the wall right around the window, some of the wool I've used to insulate my studio (I still have part of one wall to go!) in part of a rehabilitated chicken barn. That wool came from the same sheep I've been painting lately. I have a lot to thank them for!

Napa Valley Open Studios 2010 reception

Hillside Sunlight and Shadows • 16" x 20" (image size) • © 2009 Karen Lynn Ingalls

This year, our reception for Napa Valley Open Studios returns to St. Supery Winery, which has a lovely upstairs gallery area. They've painted the walls a deep, luscious brown, which sets off the artwork beautifully.

Hillside Sunlight and Shadows is the painting I'm showing in the exhibition. Although it is looking a bit dark on this post, in life it glows. It is a favorite of mine, painted a number of years ago, that always felt as though it needed a little bit more. Last year, before my exhibition at Arrowood Winery, I saw what it needed (finally!), and, at long last, finished the painting. I found this scene on a northern California ranch owned by friends of mine, whose family homesteaded it over a hundred years ago.

St. Supery is located at 8440 St. Helena Highway, in Rutherford, California. The reception, which includes wine tasting, runs from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, September 11th. There is a $5 fee for the reception and tasting. (Such a deal!) It will be a good show! I hope you can come.

A small painting of vineyards

Winter Twilight in the Vines • 14" x 11" • © 2010 Karen Lynn Ingalls

You can see this scene in the Valley of the Moon, as you drive down Highway 12 from Santa Rosa to Sonoma, not too far past Glen Ellen. I photographed it last year, after I had stopped off at Arrowood Winery, where I had had a show. I've changed things a bit (I have an artistic license, and I use it), taking out winery buildings and a road. It was mustard season, and just past sunset, so the sky had that lovely pale yellow glow....

Save the dates for Napa Valley Open Studios!

Napa Valley Open Studios is just two weeks away, and I am preparing for a wonderful time!

This year, you can find me at the Calistoga Art Center, which is also where I teach art. I'll be sharing the space with Yvonne Henry, this year's Open Studios catalog cover artist. (Isn't her photograph beautiful?) You can visit us both, and see what the Calistoga Art Center is up to, in the same visit.

We are Studio #4 on the map, right downtown in Calistoga, at 1336 Lincoln Avenue, on the second floor of Calistoga's historic Masonic Building. You can download a map and a catalog here, at www.napavalleystudios.org.

The dates and times are: September 18–19 and 25–26, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. I hope I'll see you then!