Karen Lynn Ingalls: Line, Color, Paint, Joy

Dusk in the Vineyards - II - a painting in process

2012-01-30T14:01:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-25T20:25:00.000-08:00

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.

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

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

2011-12-29T12:30:00.000-08:00

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.

December already?

2011-12-01T12:08:00.001-08:00

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

2011-10-18T14:51:00.000-07:00

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

Napa Valley Open Studios 2011

2011-09-12T13:16:00.000-07:00

Napa Valley Open Studios 2011 catalog cover • fluted glass bowl by Ed Breed

It's that time! I've been counting down for months now, but it's hard to believe that Napa Valley Open Studios begins this Saturday.

Map to Studio # 9, 1734 Scott Street, St. Helena

You can find me in St. Helena this year, at Ed Breed's glass studio, at 1734 Scott Street. Ed is this year's catalog cover artist, and he'll be giving glassblowing demonstrations during the weekend, too. (You know, last year I shared space with Yvonne Henry, last year's catalog cover artist – lucky me!)

Ed is also creating a mini-pumpkin patch, made with his glass pumpkins. And I'm bringing sketches and block prints in addition to painting. I considered giving relief printing demonstrations, but I don't think I'll have time! I will, though, have a painting in process, and I'll be glad to explain how my painting process works. We'll be open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day, Saturday and Sunday, September 17 - 18 and 24 - 25. Will we see you there? I hope so!

Knights Valley View

2011-09-12T11:14:00.000-07:00

This view looks across Knights Valley from Spence Lane (one of the most beautiful parts of a beautifully scenic valley). I can't tell you how many photographs I've taken along this road.... This is actually the second painting I've done of this view, though it looks quite different from the first – in different colors, and more layered.

Every painting takes its own time – some come more quickly, and others come as slowly as molasses in wintertime. This one came slowly, like a truculent adolescent with its own ideas. Sometimes painting does seem like child raising. After plenty of tugs-of-war and lots of patience, I think it's finally come of age, and I do like how it's turned out.

"My Calistoga" - completed at last!

2011-09-08T21:41:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it just takes awhile to figure out what a painting needs. I sit and listen, because at this point in the conversation between me and the painting, it needs to tell me what it really wants. And sometimes the painting is quiet. Sometimes they're quiet for months... or years. Sometimes I just say, "Okay - we're done!" and it becomes a moot point.

At last I figured out what My Calistoga needed – it needed gold. So here it is, photographed on the easel, with its added gold (and a little copper). And now it's ready to go out into the world.

And it did – you can see it at the Calistoga Visitor's Center (the Chamber of Commerce) in Calistoga for the next few weeks. Proceeds from its sale will benefit the Calistoga Art Center.

In case you haven't seen the story of its creation, it began as a demonstration piece at the Napa County Fair this summer. Here is its beginning, in my earlier blog posts about it: Painting Demos at the Napa County Fair and "My Calistoga" – continued progress.

Pepper sketches for Napa Valley Open Studios

2011-09-08T08:30:00.000-07:00

So, of course, I've got sketches of peppers, too. Here are some sketches of bell peppers I'm pulling out of the sketchbooks for Open Studios.... (By the way, the copyright sign, year, and my name I've added digitally to the images for the web – my signature and the title at the bottom of the page are actually on the drawing.)

Aren't peppers lovely?

They're deceptively simple, but if you look closely you'll see within each pepper are curves and planes, concavities and shallows, in a compact architecture.

The next time you hold a bell pepper in your hand, I hope you'll pause just a moment to appreciate the beauty of its form.

Pear sketches for Napa Valley Open Studios

2011-09-07T20:30:00.000-07:00

Since I seem to be in a little–original mode with the block prints, I thought I'd get out some of my little sketches for Open Studios, too.

I love to draw pears, apples, and peppers – and to use them for painting demonstrations for my classes, too. I think it's because they're so figurative... they take me right back to my figure drawing roots. If you want to learn how to draw people, start with a pear.

You don't believe me? Look at these little sweeties – they have hips, they have attitude, they have saucy little stems....

These pears came from my friend Heidi's tree. They were little, and sweet. And they had such personality!

Songbird block prints for Napa Valley Open Studios

2011-09-06T08:30:00.000-07:00

Since I'm bringing out my dragonfly block prints for Open Studios, I thought I'd bring a few of my songbird prints, too.

These were my first experiments with printing on special patterned papers. Some of these have two or three printings, and I was mixing the ink colors as I printed, so the ink colors were constantly changing.

These papers were slightly textured, a texture that was enhanced by the block printing process – not something you would find when you use mulberry or other more traditional block printing papers. Like the dragonfly block prints, they are 4.5" x 6.5" in size. These are three of seven I'll bring out to share.

Dragonfly block prints for Napa Valley Open Studios

2011-09-05T02:38:00.000-07:00

Last year I experimented with printing soft blocks on special papers, mixing different colors of inks as I went along. Most of these actually have three layers of color, with two printings, and the third layer of color between the printings an iridescent or metallic color.

I thought I'd bring them out for Napa Valley Open Studios. There's quite a variety in the papers, in color and pattern, and each one is completely different from the others, even though I was using the same block.

I printed these in one of the printmaking sessions a group of us plan every few months or so, depending on our schedules. The others originally took the Soft Block Printing workshop a few years ago; then we did a two-day workshop last year, with multiple color printing. Since then, we gather for wonderful all-day printing sessions, setting up inking stations, comparing prints, and chatting around another table as we carve our blocks.

I'll have twenty-two different dragonfly prints at Open Studios – these are four of them.

From the Soft Block Printing workshop...

2011-09-05T00:46:00.000-07:00

Sean Scully from the Weekly Calistogan came by just as Franci was about to ink and pull a print, during last week's Soft Block Printing workshop, and he included this photo in this week's paper.

Franci Claudon is a glass artist who is also a part of Napa Valley Open Studios, and she's now experimenting with how she might incorporate block printing into her glass art. This is new – she doesn't know of any other glass artists who use block printing in their work. I'm looking forward to seeing how this turns out!

And thank you to Sean for the press!

2011 Soft Block Printing workshop

2011-08-23T21:26:00.000-07:00

This summer has been a whirl of workshops! Now I'm preparing for this Saturday's workshop on Soft Block Printing - a medium I love. I get so focused on painting that scheduling workshops on it gives me the excuses I need to just carve blocks and print for a while....

If you've never done it, block printing is kind of a next step up from stamping. Any purist would be horrified by that description, mind. Block printing has a long and storied tradition, both in the West and the East, beginning with woodcuts, and moving to linoleum blocks, or linocuts, about a hundred years ago. You can also use it to print on textiles – which is actually how it originated in China, and how it is still used in India.

But soft blocks are a much more recent invention. They were actually developed when some enthusiastic rubber stampers began carving their own stamps on erasers. In fact, the blocks I generally use are pink, and are basically made of eraser material. I've used them to print cards and art prints, and I have, over the last eight years, periodically worked on a series of paintings combining acrylic paint and soft block printing (such as the painting above). I really want to combine it with relief printing and stencils, too – something I've just begun to experiment with. They work beautifully when you're mixing your media.

Soft block printing is similar to, but much easier to work with, than either linocuts or woodcuts, because of the softness of the block and its ease in cutting. In the workshop this Saturday, we'll also be using non-toxic, water-soluble inks. We'll also use safety cutters, which actually allow more flexibility of expression than traditional cutters. I'll teach students how to design and cut the block for printing, and how to ink and print greeting cards and fine art prints.

If you're interested in coming, bring along some images you might like to make prints of – drawings? photographs? We'll be carving 4" x 6" blocks.

The workshop runs from 10:00 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, August 27th, at the Calistoga Art Center, 1435 North Oak Street in Calistoga (at the Napa County Fairgrounds). Bring your lunch! You can register online at the Calistoga Art Center's website, at www.calistogaartcenter.org.

You can also see photographs of the process from 2010's two-day printmaking workshop in my August 2010 blog post. It's a wonderful process, and a rewarding medium to work with. (If you learn the process, you'll be welcome to join a group of block printers for future occasional all-day, non-instructional printmaking sessions.) I hope you can join us!

Preparing for Napa Valley Open Studios 2011

2011-08-22T21:44:00.000-07:00

The summer is flying by, and now I'm in countdown mode for Napa Valley Open Studios, only a little more than four weeks away. There is so much still to do!

This year, I'll be in St. Helena, at Ed Breed's studio on 1734 Scott Street (Studio #9). Ed, a wonderful glassblower and all-around great guy (he is this year's featured catalog cover artist, and was also the volunteer director of Open Studios in 2007) will be doing glass demonstrations each weekend, and I'll be right next to the studio with my paintings.

One of those paintings, my catalog image (above), was also chosen for the online slide show at the Napa Valley Open Studios 2011 website. You can download a catalog from the website, if you like, or find out there where you can get your own catalog. You can also find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/NapaValleyOpenStudios - I'm one of the folks working behind the scenes to bring you all the newsy posts. In fact, you can find a wonderful photo essay of Ed's glassblowing process, showing how he creates his wonderful, delicately tendriled glass pumpkins.

I hope you'll come visit me at Ed's studio! Open Studios runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the last two weekends of September, September 17–18 and 24–25.

The garden at French Laundry

2011-08-14T22:02:00.000-07:00

Easels in the garden at French Laundry

Last week I had the privilege of teaching an afternoon art workshop in the garden of Thomas Keller's French Laundry restaurant in Yountville, California. I'd never been to the garden before – I didn't know it was open to the public.

A view of the garden, looking to the west

It was a beautiful day. The garden sits across the road from the restaurant, with a lovely view toward the western hills.

Empty easels, after the workshop

As the sun leaned further to the west, and the light grew more golden, there seemed to be a bit of magic about this spot of earth. My students had been painting using the shapes and colors of the garden as inspiration, and I wished I had time to sit down and paint something myself.

Artichokes gone to seed, and a view of the greenhouse

I contented myself with taking photographs to paint from later. So it looks as though I'll be doing some garden paintings....

French Laundry in the background

As I was cleaning brushes and packing up after the workshop, cars began to arrive for the dinner hour... a new orange Eclipse convertible, a new white Eclipse convertible, a black limo, a second black limo, another new white convertible. Hmmm. Guess which car belongs to someone who isn't staying for dinner? And who hasn't waited a year for a reservation? Hint: it has easels loaded up in the back....

And, yes, that's a limo driver in the gray suit, under the tree....

"My Calistoga" - continued progress

2011-07-18T12:06:00.000-07:00

Here's My Calistoga in its "final" state (to date). As you could see in the previous post, I had a long way to go with My Calistoga after my demonstration times at the fair ended. Here's the process....

Here, I added a scumbled white frame around the sides of the canvas, between the collaged photographs. I've also developed some parts of the central composition a little further.

You may notice variances of light and warmth in the photographs – not to mention varying bits of easels and background around the edges. The photographs were all taken in changing light, at different times of the day, and in different parts of the art center as I worked on the painting. Here I've continued to develop the central composition, especially the palm trees, the area around them, and their reflections. I've worked a little on the "Calistoga" sign at the top, too.

At this stage, I've begun the process of tinting the collaged photographs. I want them to have a kind of old-timey, tinted photograph look (though they've actually been taken over the course of the last few years). I've developed the reflecting pool area a bit more, too.

The most obvious change is scumbling over the scumbled white, which covered an underpainting of reds. This time I've done it with a mid-value brown, mixed from every color in my palette.

I continued to add details to the palm trees, although they're subtle. Throughout the painting, I've used scumbling to give a sense of energy and vibrancy, and a kind of mistiness to the geyser. I love letting colors show from underneath.

Although there's some detail to the palm fronds, and the negative spaces between them, I haven't developed them overly much. In this painting, they're not as important as the geyser. The studies I did of fan palms in Palm Springs came in handily as I worked on these....

I continued to work on the little collaged photographs, too. Here are a few of them.... Left to right, downtown facing the Palisades; a sunflower from the Farmer's Market (a prizewinning photo for me); and Tom Atkins' tractor, which pulled last year's Art Center float in the Fourth of July parade.

Here, Eden's bicycle, which she kindly let me photograph at a concert in Calistoga's Pioneer Park a couple of weeks ago....

A wonderful old olive tree across Tubbs Lane and over a bit from Chateau Montelena....

Top to bottom, riders (on beautiful Palominos) in the Calistoga Cinco de Mayo parade a few years ago; the Faunce's barn on Foothill Boulevard; and Calistoga City Hall.

Top to bottom – mustard between the rows of vines; the Calistoga Mineral Water truck sculpture; and Mt. St. Helena rising above mustard and vines (the view next to Faunce's barn).

I'm teaching these collage painting techniques this Saturday at the Calistoga Art Center, too. I'm looking forward to it! You can click here for the workshop information:

http://www.napavalleyartworkshops.com/painting-collages1.html

I intended the painting to be kind of iconic of Calistoga (represented by the geyser), surrounded with the small images of so many things and places I love around town. Some stand in symbolically for other places, because I just couldn't fit everything in. I still have a little bit yet to do on the painting, but it's mostly finished.

Painting Demos at the Napa County Fair

2011-07-05T15:38:00.000-07:00

Painting at the Napa County Fair, in the Calistoga Art Center, this weekend was fun. I decided to work on a mixed media piece, incorporating collage into the painting.

Since this is Calistoga's 125th Anniversary year, and two weeks from now we'll be celebrating the town's birthday, I thought I'd create a piece called My Calistoga for that day's Calistoga-themed art show.

Of course, it's winding up way more complicated than I thought it would be initially... but it's still fun. It's 36" x 36". First, I painted an undercoat, and then chose pictures for the collage from photographs I've taken around town over the last few years.

Next I began painting the central composition – an image of Calistoga's Old Faithful Geyser.

The next stage was blocking in the areas of color. I'm using a drybrushy, scumbley technique to apply the paint, because I want bits of the underpainting to show through. This is how far I got during my fair demonstrations. I'll be adding more photos as it progresses... and, if you're in Calistoga, you'll be able to see the results at the art show during Calistoga's birthday celebration in another week.

Art demo at the Napa County Fair

2011-06-27T13:18:00.000-07:00

I'll be doing not one, but two painting demonstrations at the Napa County Fair this year. I'll be there this weekend – Saturday and Sunday, July 2nd and 3rd. This year, though, I'll be painting inside the new Calistoga Art Center, which is a part of the fairgrounds. (That also means I'll be cooler!)

If you come by the art center, you can watch me paint and ask questions, you can watch or help assemble the art center's float for the Fourth of July parade, you can get involved in some children's art activities, and you can check out our beautiful big space – a great spot to come and get creative.

There's also lots to do at the fair to engage your senses and delight your creativity – including the art and photo exhibits to see.

I'll be painting from 5 to 8 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday. I haven't yet decided what I'll do – maybe a landscape one day, maybe a mixed media piece the next? Hmmm... maybe I'll bring some block printing info down with me, too.... If you're in town, I hope you'll stop by. The fairgrounds – and the art center – are located at 1435 North Oak Street in Calistoga, California.

Painting landscapes and taking photographs

2011-06-24T10:47:00.000-07:00

We'll be painting landscapes at the Calistoga Art Center this Saturday (June 25th), working from photographs. Although my students may be bringing their own photos, I'll have a nice big collection of photos they can choose from, too.

Painting Landscapes runs from 10 to 5 (bring a lunch, and come a little early if you like). You can find more information at my workshops website at www.NapaValleyArtWorkshops.com.

Last weekend, on a museum-visiting and photo-taking quick trip to the Monterey Bay area, I was able to shoot some photographs of Elkhorn Slough and the coast from Davenport north to Half Moon Bay. When I reached Pigeon Point Lighthouse at dusk, there was still just enough light in the sky to capture the lighthouse.

Simple Pleasures II

2011-06-06T21:23:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday's Calistoga ArtWalk was a wonderful evening for me. Thank you to everyone who stopped by for my reception! If you're in Calistoga sometime between now and the end of August, and haven't seen it yet, I hope you'll stop by All Seasons Bistro and take a look at the drawings I'm showing there.

I added a couple more small pieces shortly before the opening – okay, I started to get a little more paint-y with the apple, but I still consider these essentially drawings with color washes (albeit multiple layers). They're on either side of the wine library doors, and easy to miss, so be sure to go all the way to the back of the restaurant to find them.

By the way, All Seasons is a marvelous restaurant, well known for both their food and their very large wine collection. Their current dessert menu includes two or three desserts with cherries, so my little cherry drawings turned out to be thematic without my knowing it.

This show, and the work I've been doing lately, has really taken me back to my drawing roots, which has been a joy. My big brushes and canvases are calling, so I'll be returning to my bright, warm palette of colors and California landscapes soon... but I don't intend to stay away from my pencils and sketchbooks for too long....

Simple Pleasures: Show at All Seasons, Calistoga

2011-05-29T22:17:00.000-07:00

Since I've been in a drawing mode lately, it's appropriate that my next show, Simple Pleasures, be one of drawings and drawings with acrylic washes.

These are three new little (all 7" x 5") pieces that will be part of the show.

The reception is Thursday, June 2nd, from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at All Seasons Bistro, 1400 Lincoln Avenue, in Calistoga, California. It's part of Calistoga's First Thursday ArtWalk, so you can also stroll over to several other spots and see the new shows in town. If you're in town, come join us!

Sketching Calistoga

2011-05-08T20:20:00.000-07:00

I'm giving a two–hour sketching workshop periodically throughout the summer, beginning today, called Sketching Calistoga. In it, we take time out to discover and sketch some of the lovely (and funky, or it wouldn't be Calistoga) scenes in town.

This morning, the skies were threatening rain, and I reconsidered all the indoor alternatives (the stagecoach at the Sharpsteen Museum, the Oscar Ben Sharpsteen won for his work on Disney's Fantasia, J.Kirk's coffee roaster at Yo El Rey, the folks sipping and chatting at the Calistoga Roastery...). But they cleared up, and I went sketching outdoors with Joe from Sacramento.

We started with the Napa River, here looking up towards its headwaters. Now, you may not see the Napa River in this sketch, but, trust me, it's there. It's an untamed stretch of nature, with lots of overarching trees, rocks, and thickets of bushes, and the river itself, small here in Calistoga, lazily heading towards us. The light and shadow changes quickly, and you have to work quickly.

Then it was off to City Hall, whose facade has charmed (or dismayed) people since the 1880s. The wonderful thing about sketching is that we begin to really see all the lovely details of things around us that too often we just pass by. The world is a pretty amazing place – using a sketchbook and a pencil or pen or two is a really great way to see it.

You can find out more about Sketching Calistoga at Sketching & Drawing – Napa Valley Art Workshops. The next Sketching Calistoga workshop will be Sunday, May 22nd, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00. My other art workshops are also listed at Napa Valley Art Workshops.

The Farmer's Market – a great place to sketch

2011-05-08T20:12:00.000-07:00

Calistoga's Farmer's Market opened yesterday, and it will be open every Saturday morning through the end of harvest season. There's plenty to sketch at the market, which I'm planning to do more of. This sketch is one I did three years ago, labeled "Melons at the Sunflower Stand."

Spring sketching

2011-04-25T21:43:00.000-07:00

Ah – it's spring, and the mind turns to... sketching – what else? There's nothing quite like getting out in good weather with a sketch pad and some drawing implements....

I've been waiting for the rainy season to come to a close, so I could do some more drawing outside. When I was in college, I took drawing pads everywhere I went, and was always drawing. Most of the time now, my drawing simply serves my painting, but it's always good to get back to basics.

Here's a small drawing I did during a dry patch this winter (our unseasonable January spring) of Calistoga's City Hall. It's got such character. Okay, it's downright funky... that's our town. I especially love the Christmas lights strung up across the upper floor. The bell in the bell tower doesn't ring anymore, but it did once.

The drawing is small, about the same size as the image here – but that's all you need. A pencil, a little drawing pad (and, okay, an eraser). Spring is here!

Two paintings for the Yountville show

2011-03-18T01:37:00.000-07:00

I decided to bring three of my small paintings on panels as part of the nine paintings I'll have at A Taste of Yountville. Two of them I'd been wanting to revisit – just a wee bit – so I sat down with them today.

The compositions remain the same – I've just made the colors, values, and layering just a bit more interesting. Both are scenes I found in Knights Valley, a lovely, pastoral valley just northwest of Calistoga and the northern end of Napa Valley. I'm finishing the framing now, to deliver tomorrow.

Napa Valley Open Studios artists in Yountville

2011-03-15T12:59:00.000-07:00

Napa Valley Open Studios artists at A Taste of Yountville, detail of brochure

This weekend I'll be in Yountville, a major destination for food and wine lovers, for the 18th Annual A Taste of Yountville. Yountville is a very small town with more many-starred restaurants per capita (a lot!) than any place else in the world. I know people who make pilgrimages to Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery there....

For this year's festival, Yountville Arts invited Napa Valley Open Studios artists to join the fun. On Friday night, there will be a reception with wine and small bites ($20) from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Head over to the Yountville Community Center, in the Generations Room, to join us.

The show and sale will be open on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. My space will be facing the patio, on the end, right next to the booth of Nick Cann, a dear friend and wonderful artist (and, I just learned, style leader! You can ask him to explain).

And, by the way, the little image of a vineyard on the right of the brochure (above) is from my Knights Valley Autumn. I'm pleased it was chosen! (The image of the farm worker on the left is by one of my favorite painters, Beverly Wilson.)

The event is not too too far from the Westin Verasa Napa, where my new show just went up last week (and where you can currently see Knights Valley Autumn). I'll post photos later ... it will be up through the end of May.

Painting palms

2011-03-06T22:17:00.000-08:00

I've just returned from a one-week trip to the California desert.... Although I spent most of my time photographing, I did manage to squeeze in a little plein air painting time.

The light changes quickly as you paint outdoors, especially in early morning or late afternoon. The best solutions are to work quickly, paint small, and at some point commit yourself to a certain light and stick with it (a good memory is very helpful).

The finished painting on the easel, after the sun has gone down (the palm trees are out of the picture, to the right)

I painted these three palm trees in late afternoon light, at the top of Racquet Canyon Road, in Palm Springs.

Drawing with wild color

2011-02-25T00:59:00.000-08:00

Today I had the pleasure of spending some time with children making art, at the Calistoga Boys and Girls Club, after school.

I brought one of my paintings in to show them, and we talked about using color in ways we like, not necessarily the way we expect things to look. We looked at examples of paintings by the Fauves (who painted like wild beasts! Hence the name, which means "wild beasts" in French), and the German expressionists – portraits with green, yellow, and red faces – and landscapes with pink and blue hills and green skies....

Then the students set down to create something, using wild color inspired by the Fauves. Dayana, in the drawing above, decided to combine a landscape with a wild pink and red sky and a portrait – of me! Green skin, red neck, red hair, yellow bangs, and green ears – I love it! I am honored that she gave it to me.

Winter progress

2011-02-21T11:06:00.000-08:00

Winter arrived (again), after a lovely but untimely interlude of early spring. Snow fell on Mt. St. Helena (above), the hills around Knights Valley (to its left), and up in Lake County, and decided to stay for awhile. I stopped to take this photo across from Graeser Winery. What you can't see is the tree, to the right, that was still partly full of all the blossoms the rain didn't knock down.

The studio is coming along well. I've finished this first stage of painting the walls, and two dear friends helped me set up shelves. Ah! The beginnings of a semblance of organization! It feels good.

Now I'm knuckling down to prepare for both a photographing trip to the desert and five (yup - count 'em - five!) shows in March. One will be a solo show – and that will be at the Westin Verasa, Napa, on the Napa River. Another will be with my Napa Valley Open Studios colleagues at A Taste of Yountville, a wonderful food–and–art event in the tiny town that has more top restaurants per square foot than any place in the world. It's going to be a busy week....

Napa Valley Art Workshops website

2011-02-07T13:13:00.000-08:00

The first website (of the two I'm working on) is up! And you can find it at www.napavalleyartworkshops.com. This one lists and describes the art workshops I'll be teaching this summer, and includes photographs from previous workshops.

While I'm still in the process of scheduling many of the workshops, dates are set for Create Your Own Wine Labels and Sketching Calistoga. And the Calistoga Visitors Center has made them official events of our town's 125th anniversary year! I need to go back and add the official logo to those pages....

Building infrastructure

2011-02-01T15:08:00.000-08:00

The turning of this year seems, for me, to be about building infrastructure of one kind or another.

The work I'm doing in my studio – painting walls, putting up shelves, reworking and organizing the space - the work I've been doing building websites (they're coming!) for my painting and my teaching, and the demonstration examples I'm making for this summer's workshops are kind of like roads, hospitals, and public works projects. You need them to get things done, to make things work. You depend on them.

So, at some point the walls will all be painted, the shelves will all be up (it's a work in progress), and the paintings and canvases will be stacked on them neatly. The websites will be up and running, with all the information anyone needs or wants to know about my paintings and my classes and workshops. The sample work will all be done and photographed, and everything will run ever so efficiently....

Am I dreaming?

Okay, at least a bit more efficiently. I hope. I can hardly wait! Now, back to work....

The studio project

2011-01-11T13:02:00.000-08:00

I am blessed to be able to use as my studio part of a barn near Calistoga. I have two skylights, two windows, and amazing light; two doors, one with ramp access and the other one a big barn door (great for bringing big paintings in and out).

Insulating with wool in progress

Slowly, I've been getting work done on the studio as well as in it. When I was searching for a good (and cheap) way to insulate the walls, another painter suggested sheep's wool, which is sometimes used for insulation in England and Canada. A renewable resource – it's green! And I knew people with sheep and wool and no place to take it, which is how I wound up insulating the barn walls with wool. My landlord also gave me some old foamboard insulation, which sped up the process enormously. I like that this has been a green project – keeping both the wool and the foamboard out of the landfill.

Insulating with wool in progress

All but two sections of wall are insulated now, and most of them are covered by oriented-strand board. Lately, I've been working on filling gaps in the wall with expanding foam and spackle, cutting off the foam and sanding it and the spackle, and priming the walls. I'm working on one side of the studio, and I'm happy to see it all beginning to come together....

Getting a little enthusiastic testing colors

The next step is to paint over the primer. This side of the studio will have darker walls. I went a little overboard in my enthusiasm (and confusion) about what direction to go, color-wise. It was fun, though. (Beware those little tester paint pots – they are soooo seductive. And some of the test colors I mixed myself with student-grade acrylics.)

My Mark Rothko wall

I thought this wall was looking a bit like Mark Rothko.... (No, I didn't really need to paint the light strip in the middle - I just really, really wanted to turn the wall, for a moment, into an homage to Rothko. The temptation was too great.…)

Zoe, enjoying the view from the studio at twilight

I think I've settled on wall colors now (none of the ones you see above). I tested them next to nearly every painting in the studio. We'll see how they work!

Spring 2011 painting classes at the Calistoga Art Center

2011-01-10T23:21:00.000-08:00

The new year has arrived, and it's time for my Acrylic Painting classes to begin again at the Calistoga Art Center. This will be the Art Center's last month in Calistoga's historic Masonic Building, on the main street in town. The light there is spectacular.… Feel like painting objects in light from the windows? Painting the street views? This is your last chance.…

Painters at work in the Spring 2010 Acrylic Painting class

The first four–week session runs from January 12th through the beginning of February. We'll have one four–week session on Wednesdays, and another on Fridays, both from 1:00 to 4:00 in the afternoon.

Then the Art Center moves to its new location, in the Cropp Building, at the Napa Valley Fairgrounds, 1435 North Oak Street, Calistoga. We'll have 3,000 feet of space! With skylights, concrete floors, and a big parking lot! It's going to be a wonderful space for us — I hope you'll join us – or come by and take a look during our Open House coming in March.

The remaining spring sessions will be:

February 9th through March 18th

March 23rd through April 15th

April 27th through May 20th

You can find more information online at www.calistogaartcenter.org.

The arty side of the California State Capitol

2010-12-15T23:15:00.000-08:00

Three years ago, Arts Council Napa Valley approached State Senator Pat Wiggins, our representative in Sacramento, and asked her if she would like to choose artwork from the Napa Valley to display in her Sacramento offices. She said yes, and chose two artists — painter Molly Corbett Kruse and me.

She loved our work! I was honored that she chose one of my paintings, Lofty Oak, as the image for her holiday card the following December. And what originally was intended to be a six-month show lasted three years.…

Last week, Molly and I drove to Sacramento, to pick up our paintings, and had an art-filled day at the Capitol. It was a day to remember!

Molly and Koren on the floor of the Senate Chamber (obviously not in session – the new Senators were just sworn in a few days earlier, and the new governor and lieutenant governor will be sworn in after the new year). Notice the television camera artfully hidden behind the draperies? • © 2010 Karen Lynn Ingalls

Koren Benoit, art curator at the Capitol, gave us a special tour, showing us paintings in offices and committee rooms that most visitors don't get to see. After lunch, we saw even more with a Capitol docent. What a wonderful day!

I'll be sharing some of what I saw and learned in my next few posts here and on my art teaching blog, Napa Valley Art Camp.

Combing through my photographs

2010-12-07T14:20:00.000-08:00

The next stage of my painting process is looking at all those photographs I took when autumn colors were at their loveliest. As I have nearly 650 photographs to go through, it's a pretty extensive part of the process.

Not only do I look through all the images and choose the ones I like best, but I also crop photos to find new compositions, and adjust the lighting to approximate more nearly my memory (and imagination). I resize and save them, labeling them so that I can identify where I took the photo. The photo above, by the way, was taken on the way to my studio.

Thank heavens for digital photography! It allows me to take plenty of photos, giving me lots of images to work with in the paintings I'll be working on throughout the year.

A (cyber) wall of paintings

2010-11-26T19:42:00.000-08:00

I've posted fourteen of my paintings on Facebook (www.facebook.com/KarenLynnIngallsArt), in an album, California Landscape Paintings - Portfolio 1, that, when viewed all at once, becomes a (cyber) wall of paintings, with the images stacked salon-style. I'm enjoying seeing the color and impact of them viewed all together in a way that they could never be seen in life, because of the differences in their sizes and the difficulties of finding a wall big enough....

Lofty Oak, private collection

chosen by Senator Pat Wiggins for her 2008 holiday card

Next week, I'll be traveling to Sacramento with painter Molly Corbett Kruse. Three years ago state Senator Pat Wiggins chose our work to grace the walls of her office. During an arts advocacy day not long after, when arts advocates met her to lobby for the arts, she enthused about my paintings, including Country Road, the top left painting on the wall above. She also chose another of my paintings, Lofty Oak, above, as the image for her holiday card the following December. Because of her love for our work, what was originally intended to be a six-month show was extended indefinitely.

Now that Senator Wiggins's term has ended, Molly and I will pick up our paintings on Tuesday. We're looking forward to a tour of the Capitol! After I get home, I intend to rephotograph a couple of them, and add them and one or two other paintings to the wall.

More photos from the road - II

2010-11-24T09:05:00.000-08:00

More photos from the road, taken from along the Silverado Trail.... We had a little respite from the rain, between storms.

Frost has kissed some of the vineyards, browning the colors in them a little, and the wind is blowing leaves off the vines. It's curious how one vineyard can be full of leaves in strong color, while another across the road or next door can be nearing leaflessness....

Three Palms Vineyard is one I keep photographing, nearly every year, though I haven't yet painted it. I love the shapes of the palm trees standing, iconic, in the middle of the vines. It helps that the road rises above the vineyard, giving me a good view of lots of color as I stand on the side of the road. There's a little too much traffic and not enough room there to use my stepladder for added height.

I particularly love discovering little roads and byways I haven't yet explored. This was one of them, just off the trail. Often these little roads don't lead far, blocked by the Palisades, the steep hills rising to the east – or they become ranch roads, private property unless you know the right people and have connections.

I don't have connections on this road (yet), but it leads just far back enough to take me to some heavenly views. It was a beautiful afternoon.

More photos from the road

2010-11-21T21:35:00.000-08:00

As the rain pounds the roof, I think of the leaves falling to the ground, the cold weather and frost to come, and the inevitable curling and browning of the leaves that will follow it. I am glad I was able to get as many photographs this week as I was, while the weather was good.

I love this time of year, with its glorious riot of colors. The vineyards are here what maple trees are to New England.

It's important to me to take as many photographs as I can. Sorting through them, choosing, cropping, and printing them, all are jobs for rainy days, all preparatory for painting.

I drove up Mt. St. Helena to get some faraway shots of the northern end of the valley, north of Calistoga. I've always thought it would be heavenly to take a balloon ride over the valley - aerial images of the vineyards and fields appeal to me, especially in the intense yellows and reds they wear in autumn. This isn't quite the same, but it's as close as I can manage with a Volvo and a highway....

Preparing for winter

2010-11-10T17:25:00.000-08:00

You might wonder why I haven't been posting many new paintings lately. The reason is that, this time of year, once Open Studios have passed, I and the squirrels are busy preparing for winter.

Like squirrels gathering nuts for the winter, I'm busy gathering images. This time of year is, for me, heaven on earth. Last year, our first frosts came in late October, and I'd missed the most beautiful colors. This year, with our weird combination of early rains and a cooler autumn (but no frost yet) is hard on growers and winemakers, but it is giving me beautiful images to photograph. I'm racing against time, though.

The green grass is coming up, and the leaves really only began turning colors in earnest last week. Now they are proceeding apace – more yellow, more red, more glorious each day. But the rains have come, and they drive the leaves to the ground. I have to squeeze in as much time for photographing as I can, before the leaves have fallen. The days are short, I need to catch the light when it's just right, and I need to be in the right spot at the right time.

Gathering the images is only the beginning. Then I sort through everything – hundreds of photos (thank heavens for digital cards!), and choose, label, and resort my favorites. Later will come cropping and adjusting the colors and values in each photograph, and printing out the versions I like best, all before I get back to my empty and waiting canvases.

California afternoon

2010-11-01T16:06:00.000-07:00

Here's a small painting I did a little while back... I love the early California kind of feeling the colors have. This spot is in Knights Valley, near Calistoga, at the northern end of the Napa Valley.

In spite of the half dozen or so paintings still partially completed – ones I was racing to work on before Open Studios – this painting and another small one I did at the same time keep calling to me. I'd like to see both of them on large canvases....

Scarecrows as art - III

2010-11-01T10:29:00.000-07:00