Karen Lynn Ingalls Contemporary Art
(707) 942-0197
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Demonstration for Artist's Round Table

1/17/2014

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The demonstration setup, with lights, and a video camera filming closeups transferred onto the screen above
I had the absolute pleasure of giving a demonstration for the painters at the Artists' Round Table in Santa Rosa, California, in November. They meet once a month at the Veterans' Memorial Building, and welcomed me heartily. Here's a sequence showing the progress of the painting. My thanks to Marlene and Sharon, who took the photos and shared them with me, so I could share them here!
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Working out the composition initially
Working from one of my photos of a vineyard on Petrified Forest Road, near my old home, I began drawing in the composition, and, as usual, checked it upside down to see if it was working.
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Blocking in the big shapes
I think most of the members were surprised when I continued painting upside down. (I probably spend at least a third to half of my time working upside down on each painting - sometimes more.)
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Continued progress, adding some of the darks and shadow spaces
Often painters will block in their darks first, which is, I think, a good idea. It allows you to get a good sense of strong values from the very beginning. However, I tend to work a little differently. I like the unmitigated brilliance of the light colors laid down on the canvas first, and then tend to add darker colors later.
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Bringing more darks into the painting, including the intense blue sky
Here, I'm painting right-side up again.

The most challenging part of giving a demonstration is talking about what you're doing as you're doing it. The poor brain has to shift back and forth from creative mode to linguistic mode. I think I mostly made sense! And the painting seemed to progress well, though I had to just stop talking now and again so I could take it in without distraction.
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There's been a little more development of trees and sky at this point.
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At the end of the demonstration
I wasn't finished by the end of the demonstration time, but the painting had come quite a ways from its beginnings.
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With the painting, at the end of the demonstration time
At this point, I had solid patterns of shapes and lights and darks, waiting only for a little more magic. I used to keep my shapes larger and more abstracted - at one time I probably would have called this nearly finished. I was tempted to do it with this painting, too - I like the way the big shapes are working together.
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Nearly there....
After continuing to work on this back in the studio, this is how the painting looked — many layers later. But it didn't feel quite done yet. I needed to sit with it a while, to figure out just what it was it needed. This is the part of my conversation with the painting — one of the best metaphors I know for my painting process — where my job is to sit still and listen, in order to coax the painting into telling me just what it needs next.
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The final stage of the painting! "Autumn Celebration," 12" x 16" in acrylics on canvas, © 2014 Karen Lynn Ingalls.
What the painting needed, as it turned out, was mostly greater variation in the blues of the sky (which you can see in the photograph I worked from) and some yellows in the leaves of the vineyard.
My thanks to A.R.T., and to Diana Anderson for inviting me to give the demonstration for them!
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Secrets of Color Harmony, Part I

1/12/2013

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I've been working like crazy to prepare for my new color workshop on January 26th, Secrets of Color Harmony - Part I. I've taught workshops on color before, and I teach color in my Acrylic Painting classes, but in this workshop we'll be taking a slightly different approach.
So I've been painting new examples, and finding new examples, and creating new handouts – and figuring out just how much I'll be able to pack into this day. Each participant will create their own book to take home and refer back to, to make this as practical and applicable as possible. The idea is that you go home with specific ways of creating color harmony in your paintings that you can put into immediate practice.
Here are the specifics:

When: Saturday, January 26 - 10:00 am to 5:00 pm (Bring your lunch!)
Where: Calistoga Art Center, 1435 North Oak St., at the Napa County Fairgrounds
Cost: $85, with 10% discount for Calistoga Art Center members
Materials Fee: $15, payable to the instructor
Register by Wednesday, January 23. (I need to know how many people to prepare materials for.)
Maximum 12 people, minimum of 4

You can find out more information at my art workshops website, at:
www.NapaValleyArtWorkshops.com. You can also sign up online at www.CalistogaArtCenter.org.
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Composition Demonstration in Napa - II

10/24/2012

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Bette Maron's sketch – on her iPhone – of Karen giving demonstration
I thoroughly enjoyed the demonstration I gave at the Napa Valley Art Association on Monday. And I had no idea that Bette Maron was sketching me on her iPhone - I love the results (thank you, Bette!). I'll post photos of the painting in process as soon as I get some taken.
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The latest in my Acrylic Painting classes

5/10/2011

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Next week begins a new four-week session of acrylic painting classes. Each session is a little different, depending on who's in the class, and what they want or need. This last couple of weeks we've been looking at warm and cool colors – not only the general division between warm yellows, oranges, and reds, and cool greens, blues, and purples, but also the warm and cool variations within each color.

Tomorrow we'll be varnishing a painting and exploring incorporating collage into a painting - and I may be doing a little painting demonstration, depending on how things go. Variety is the spice of art!
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    Karen Lynn Ingalls

    I am an artist in Napa and Sonoma Counties, in California. I paint colorist landscapes of rural California, teach art classes and lessons, and live in Calistoga, California. I also teach private, group, and corporate art workshops in Napa Valley, Sonoma County, and other parts of Northern California.

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Learn more about Karen Lynn Ingalls's art workshops at www.NapaValleyArtWorkshops.com.
Learn more about 
Karen Lynn Ingalls' 
art workshops on NapaValleyArtWorkshops.com.
All text and images © 2017 Karen Lynn Ingalls, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.
All text and images are the copyright of Karen Lynn Ingalls, unless otherwise stated, and may not be reproduced without her express written permission.