More small studies

Knights Valley landscape (untitled study), © 2010 Karen Lynn Ingalls

Here are a couple more small studies painted on gessoed masonite.... These are in the neighborhood of 8"x10".

Both were painted from photographs I took in Knights Valley, during autumn, a few years ago. For some reason, I'd never printed out any of the photos of that day.

Knights Valley trees and vineyard (untitled study), © 2010 Karen Lynn Ingalls

I remember the drive; it was already late afternoon when I began, and I scurried to take as many photos as I could before I lost the light. I was standing, with my camera, on a stepladder in the road — a lightly traveled road — photographing a vineyard, when a truck pulled up beside me, and the fellow inside said, "Turn around! The moon is rising!"

There, behind me, a full moon rose behind Mt. St. Helena. From then on, I photographed the rising moon. I haven't painted it, and don't know that I will. Not all photographs call to me to be painted. But what a beautiful experience....

A little about me and websites

I've begun this blog partly as an interim step to a major redesign of my old website. So, in lieu of an "About the Artist" page, here's my bio:

I live and paint in the mountains west of Calistoga, under the watchful eye of my dog, Zoe. I began drawing as soon as I could hold a crayon (preferably magenta colored). Somewhere my mother still has a drawing of an anatomically correct nude woman I drew at the age of three.... My focus on figure drawing and painting took a little turn when I began painting endangered landscapes - places threatened by development - in conjunction with working to save those places. Ultimately recognizing that much of rural California is threatened by development, I now primarily paint rural landscapes - the land, trees, vineyards, water, and the skies that I love.

My artwork has been exhibited on both west and east coasts, in places ranging from the Monterey Conference Center in Monterey, California, to New York City's Lincoln Center. Articles about my work have appeared in the Calistoga Tribune, the Weekly Calistogan, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, the Salinas Californian, the Monterey Herald, and the Monterey County Coast Weekly, among others. I have also been interviewed about my artwork on radio stations KVYN, in Napa, and KAZU in Pacific Grove.

My work can be seen currently in the Sacramento offices of State Senator Pat Wiggins; at Graeser Winery in Calistoga, California; at the Sonoma County Central Library and the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, California (look for the life-sized painted statues of Peanuts comic strip characters - here is my Charlie Brown, along with some statues by other artists); at the Silver Grape and North Star in Calistoga, California; and on the web right here.

To see a little more of what I've done on the web, here are links to:
• my Napa Valley Open Studios artist's profile page
• Endangered Landscapes - a mini-gallery of selections from a larger show, presented online by the Elkhorn Slough Foundation
• my old website
• Napa Valley Art Camp, the instructional blog I keep for my students