Color, Color, Color...
"Sunset Symphony" • Acrylics on Canvas • 36" x 48" • © Karen Lynn Ingalls
Northern California painter Karen Lynn Ingalls creates artwork with vibrantly charged color. Her colorist landscape paintings of rural California often employ oranges and yellows, and warm blues and greens that glow.
It's a warmth reminiscent of a kind of eternal summer — an archetypal last golden hour of the day. And they are the colors of the California poppies and blue lupine flowers that grew in the meadow next to her family's home, which clearly made a deep impression.
It's a warmth reminiscent of a kind of eternal summer — an archetypal last golden hour of the day. And they are the colors of the California poppies and blue lupine flowers that grew in the meadow next to her family's home, which clearly made a deep impression.
Evening Serenity • acrylics on canvas • 36" x 48" • © 2023 Karen Lynn Ingalls
Although her colors may vary a little, depending on the seasons, the landscape, the time of day, and what calls to her, she always returns to this palette, which she describes as containing "a kind of visual Vitamin C."
It is these colors that people often remark on as drawing them into her work. They are the colors of a golden state — perhaps a California that is a state of mind, or a state of the heart.
It is these colors that people often remark on as drawing them into her work. They are the colors of a golden state — perhaps a California that is a state of mind, or a state of the heart.
"Country Road" • Acrylics on Canvas • 30" x 40" • © Karen Lynn Ingalls
Come visit Karen & her artwork
at Backstreet Studios, on First Fridays
in Santa Rosa's SOFA Arts District
Backstreet Gallery & Studios, on Art Alley, off of South A Street, Santa Rosa, California
First Friday of each month (except in July 2025, when some studios will be open for both First Friday and Second Friday — July 4th and July 11th) • 5 to 8 PM
First Friday of each month (except in July 2025, when some studios will be open for both First Friday and Second Friday — July 4th and July 11th) • 5 to 8 PM
Karen's Online Art Teaching
Karen teaches art classes and workshops, currently all online, and is pleased to be able to teach students from all over the United States and abroad. Upcoming classes include:
- Abstract Landscape Painting — July, August & September, 2025
- Acrylic Painting 101 — October 4 & 11, 2025
- The #1 Secret to Great Color Harmony — dates to be announced
- Secrets of Color Harmony — dates to be announced
- Acrylic Painting Online / Color and Composition — Biweekly, July-December, 2025
For more information, see www.NapaValleyArtWorkshops.com.
This Storm Too Shall Pass...
"This Storm Too Shall Pass" • 11"x 14"
• Acrylics on canvas, unframed • Private collection • © Karen Lynn Ingalls
There was a break in the storm clouds one day in the first week of March, 2020. Beyond I could see blue sky, and a bit of the sun hitting Mt. St. Helena, just north of Calistoga, where I live. It seems emblematic of our times. It's good to remember that, yes, this storm too shall pass. — Karen Lynn Ingalls
