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.

2011 Soft Block Printing workshop

Dragonfly soft block print • © 2003 Karen Lynn Ingalls

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.

Iridescence, an acrylic painting created using the same dragonfly soft block • © 2010 Karen Lynn Ingalls

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.

Angel of Peace soft block print, printed as a Christmas card • © 2003 Karen Lynn Ingalls

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.

Songbird soft block prints, with multiple colors • © 2003 Karen Lynn Ingalls

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!

Painting landscapes and taking photographs

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.

Pigeon Point Lighthouse at dusk • photo © 2011 Karen Lynn Ingalls

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.

Sketching Calistoga

Calistoga City Hall • © 2011 Karen Lynn Ingalls

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.

Napa River, in Calistoga • © 2011 Karen Lynn Ingalls

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.

Napa Valley Art Workshops website

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....

Soft Block Printing workshop - Saturday

Tomorrow I'll be teaching a workshop on Soft Block Printing, at the Calistoga Art Center, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Interested?

In it, you will learn to create block printed cards and art prints with easy-to-cut soft blocks (much easier than linoleum blocks) and non-toxic, water soluble inks – for the holidays or any time.

Bring potential design ideas (or sketches worked out for a 4"x6" design), and your own materials, if you have them – or you may purchase materials in class. If you have any words you would like to incorporate into your design, bring them, printed out in a font you like.

The Calistoga Art Center is located at 1336 Lincoln Avenue (2nd floor), Calistoga. You can find out more and register online at www.calistogaartcenter.org.

Soft Block Printmaking Workshop

I always loved block printing – whether linoleum block or wood block, its characteristics appealed to me. But the actual process of cutting the block was just too darn hard (literally!). Years later, I learned that my frustrated attempt to cut a lino block would have been easier if I'd let it soften in the hot sun first. Now artists use heat guns and heating pads to make it workable. Still, cutting is a challenge, and it's easy to slip and cut yourself instead of the block.

Imagine my pleasure when I discovered soft blocks! They're basically eraser material – and they cut so easily that the process became a pleasure for me. The cutters are relatively new, too – I use safety cutters that are much easier to manipulate, and that create lovely curves with an ease you couldn't get before.

The pleasure I found in creating block prints with these (then) new materials is what I'm sharing this weekend in my Soft Block Printmaking Weekend workshop. I've written more about the materials at my teaching blog, Napa Valley Art Camp, and there's more information here on my Art Workshops page.

Angel of Peace © 2004 Karen Lynn Ingalls

Here's one of my Christmas cards from a few years back, created with a soft block.

We'll be printing cards, art prints, and fabric, learning different methods for printing with one or more colors, and having a great time – I am looking forward to it!

Abstract Landscape Painting Workshop Photos

Demonstrating layering (using a plastic fork) © 2010 Erik Bolijn

Do you wonder what you missed in the Abstract Landscape Painting workshop? I've posted photos on my art teaching blog, www.napavalleyartcamp, here.