Pepper sketches for Napa Valley Open Studios

Bell pepper  •  © 2011 Karen Lynn Ingalls

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.)

Bell pepper  •  © 2011 Karen Lynn Ingalls

Aren't peppers lovely?

Bell pepper  •  © 2011 Karen Lynn Ingalls

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.

Bell pepper  •  © 2011 Karen Lynn Ingalls

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

Pear sketch  •  © 2011 Karen Lynn Ingalls

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.

Pear sketch  •  © 2011 Karen Lynn Ingalls

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.

Pear sketch  •  © 2011 Karen Lynn Ingalls

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

Pear sketch  •  © 2011 Karen Lynn Ingalls

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

A last look at Open Studios

Still life wall – graphite drawings with acrylics • © 2009 Karen Lynn Ingalls

A last look at Open Studios.... These are some more of the still life drawings and paintings I brought in.

Last year, Arts Council Napa Valley asked me to put up an exhibition at the Napa Senior Center. For it, I decided to bring in some of the still life pieces I'd been doing – the graphite drawings with acrylics above. I then added a series of small, simple still life drawings. The show, Simple Pleasures, was only supposed to be up for a couple of months, but it wound up being there for nearly a year. I'm glad they enjoyed the show so much!

A Cup of Tea (left), and Apple (right) • © 2009 Karen Lynn Ingalls

Sometimes it's good to get back to basics. I discovered how I have evolved as an artist by doing them, too. My approach to art has always been through my drawing. Although I painted, it wasn't until about thirteen years ago that I really began to think of myself as a painter, and not only as a drawer. It was then that color began to make sense to me in new ways.

An arrangement of pears, with Yvonne Henry's wonderful and punny A Jury of Your Pears on the left, and my pear drawing, Bosc Pear, and small paintings on the right

I began this series of small drawings by drawing as I often do, with lovely loose, gestural lines, which are most evident in the first one of a baby squash. I discovered that each drawing after it began to be more and more about shape and value, rather than about line, which you can see most clearly in A Cup of Tea, Apple, and Bosc Pear (above). I realize that, while I once painted like a drawer, now I draw like a painter. They are different ways of seeing. It feels like a wonderful way to grow, as both a drawer and a painter.

Simple Pleasures: Show at Napa Senior Center

I just put up a new show of still life work at the Napa Senior Center. This is the first time I've had a show of my drawings – these are both small pencil drawings (I'll post one or two of them later) and larger graphite drawings with acrylics, like the two I've shown here, Thistle Bouquet and A Simple Repast II.

These were inspired by my students, as so many things are. Our conversations in class about still life, about composition, about using acrylics in a watercolor-like way, about lights and darks, about simple palettes, and about drawing ellipses – all inspired me to revisit these lovely subjects.

You can see this show, Simple Pleasures, at the Napa Senior Center, 1500 Jefferson Street in Napa, California, through the holidays.