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.

The Farmer's Market – a great place to sketch

Calistoga Farmer's Market – Melons at the Sunflower Stand • © 2008 Karen Lynn Ingalls

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

Calistoga City Hall • © 2011 Karen Lynn Ingalls

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!

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.