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!

Two paintings for the Yountville show

Knights Valley Oak • © 2011 Karen Lynn Ingalls

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.

Three Trees, Knights Valley • © 2011 Karen Lynn Ingalls

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

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

Three Palms for Gail • © 2011 Karen Lynn Ingalls

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

A portrait of Karen Lynn Ingalls • © 2011 Dayana C.

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

Snow on Mt. St. Helena, February 2011 • photo © 2011 Karen Lynn Ingalls

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.

New shelves! • photo © 2011 Karen Lynn Ingalls

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

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

Inside the studio, newly painted walls • photo © 2011 Karen Lynn Ingalls

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.

Home page of one of the new websites • photo © 2011 Karen Lynn Ingalls

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....