by Karen Lynn Ingalls Last weekend's Soft Block Printing workshop made the news! Sean Scully from the Weekly Calistogan came by just as Franci Claudon was about to ink her block and pull a new print. Here's the photograph he published.
Franci is a glass artist, also part of Napa Valley Open Studios, and is now experimenting with ways she might incorporate block printing into glass art. Doesn't that sound cool? I'm looking forward to seeing how she develops it. You can see Franci's glass work on her Facebook page at facebook.com/MagpieStudioDesign, where you can also see her first block print–and–glass experiment.
2 Comments
by Karen Lynn Ingalls The summer is flying by! It's already nearly September, and time for my last one-day workshop of the summer – Soft Block Printing. If you've ever tried linoleum block printing and found it too hard to cut, or admired wood block printing from afar, soft blocks may be just what you're looking for. Soft blocks are easy to cut, and pretty durable. And what you can do with them - oh, it just does my heart good! The dragonfly print above I made from the drawing of a dragonfly I found. Catching all that motion and glitter and flight in the form of a print gave me great joy – and still does, whenever I look at it. I also combined block printing and painting to create an ongoing series of dragonfly paintings in different colors. You can see one of the most recent, Iridescence, below. In fact, I'd like to revisit that series, this time adding relief printing, and perhaps using stencils, along with the block printed and painted areas. Block printing is wonderful all by itself, but pretty darned amazing combined with other media.
by Karen Lynn Ingalls It may take a year to wait for a reservation at Thomas Keller's French Laundry restaurant in Yountville, California, but they very kindly accommodated ten of us for a painting workshop in the garden this last week. Nine beginning painters, visiting from a company in San Francisco, and I spent the afternoon reveling in the views, and finding inspiration in them. First everyone experimented with brush strokes and getting the feel of mixing paint and water and applying it to a surface. Then we strolled about the garden, enjoying the views – and the tiny new baby quail hiding in a bed of beets. Next, with some initial direction, everyone created an abstract painting inspired by the shapes (and colors) before them. We followed it up with some relief printing. The idea was to have fun, dive into creativity, and play with paint. And they did! It was a beautiful day – the weather was just about perfect, and the wind wasn't too strong, though it did try to blow things away a few times. It was my introduction to the garden, too – I hadn't known it was open to the public. I took plenty of photos, so I can paint garden paintings of my own.
by Karen Lynn Ingalls Finally I've been able to get back to the new art tools I made for relief printing! I spent today playing with them, experimenting with the shapes and textures they make, and layering colors. I'd also made stencils, using a wonderful stencil–making technique, and tried different ways of incorporating them into my painted papers. It was a joyful process!
These are all techniques we'll be using in the Paint, Stencils, and Relief Printing workshop coming up on Saturday, August 13th, 2011, at the Calistoga Art Center. You can see some more of my results at Paint, Stencils, and Relief Printing: Adventures in Mixed Media. They are fun, lighthearted creative processes – I'm looking forward to sharing them! by Karen Lynn Ingalls My Calistoga is a painting I've been working on for the 125th birthday celebration of Calistoga, California, the town where I live. I've incorporated collage elements around the edges of the painting, in a kind of frame. They have a kind of tinted-photograph feeling, one that seems appropriate to me for the occasion. It's one of the collage painting techniques I'll be teaching in this Saturday's Painting Collages workshop at the Calistoga Art Center. You can find out more about the Painting Collages workshop here: http://www.napavalleyartworkshops.com/painting-collages1.html Here's one of the collaged images, a detail from the painting: If you'd like to see more about the process of creating My Calistoga, you can follow it on my blog, Karen Lynn Ingalls: Line, Color, Paint, Joy. The beginning of the process is at Painting Demos at the Napa County Fair, and the second post illustrating its progress is at "My Calistoga" - continued progress.
by Karen Lynn Ingalls Today I drew these three oaks in my backyard. I love how the two older trees curve, making such interesting shapes in the air (negative spaces, in artistic terms).
I wanted to draw them in particular since the middle tree will have to come down before winter, because it is rotting at the base. I'm hoping the little oak tree sprouting from its roots will grow into something as lovely and interesting. by Karen Lynn Ingalls Last Saturday's Painting Landscapes workshop was pure pleasure for me. What a wonderful group of painters to spend a day with! We talked color palettes, we mixed colors, we talked composition, we cropped photos, and we painted, painted, painted.
You should have seen the work everyone had on their easels – what a delight it was! I especially love it when people find the colors that make their heart sing. I was so busy I didn't have a chance to take photos to share, but I hope everyone will keep in touch – and have a wonderful time with your painting! I'd love to see how your work develops. by Karen Lynn Ingalls It's a good idea to have good photos to work from, when you paint from photos (although, frankly, some of my best paintings have come from bad photos).
Preparing a photo before you print it is helpful. Consider your canvas's proportions. You can crop it digitally (another convenience of computers) according to those proportions, or cover parts of the printed image up with paper, till you have the image you want. On your computer screen, check to see whether the image looks dull - does it need more contrast? Rather than increasing the contrast, adjust the levels in your photo program (it may be called "adjust colors"). I'll show how in tomorrow's workshop for those who are taking it. Next, print on photo or brochure paper to maximize the range of colors you can print. It does help! by Karen Lynn Ingalls Now that the hills have turned golden, it's one of the best times for landscape painters in California. If you can stand the heat, anyway....
We'll have the best of both in this Saturday's Painting Landscapes workshop. We'll be inside (and there is a cooler!), working from photographs. Working from photographs is definitely different from painting outside. The light doesn't change every five minutes (or less); you don't have to deal with heat, wind, and inclement weather; there are no passersby who stop to watch you at work and engage you in conversation; and no birds will drop a critique on your work. A photograph can be limiting – and it can also be freeing. Knowing what the photograph's limitations are, and replacing those limitations with memory and imagination, it can be a springboard to a whole new creation. For me, painting from a photograph is a freeing thing. Just how to make that happen in your own painting is one of the things we'll be covering in Painting Landscapes. I'm looking forward to it! And if you're out driving around, keep a camera in your car. You never know when you'll spot scenes that call out to be painted.... Have you thought painting would be a wonderful way to get your summer started? Whether you are a beginner, intermediate, or a more experienced painter, these classes at the Calistoga Art Center may be just the ticket for you.
The next Acrylic Painting four-week class sessions begin this week, on Wednesday afternoons from 1 to 4 p.m., or on Friday afternoons at the same time. If you have to miss a class one day, you're welcome to make it up on the other day of the week. Wednesday classes begin on June 15th, and Friday classes begin on June 17th. You can sign up online at: http://www.calistogaartcenter.org/adultmatureteenclasses.html – or join us and register in class. |
Karen Lynn IngallsI am a working artist in Napa and Sonoma Counties, in northern California. I paint colorist landscapes of rural California, teach art classes, workshops, and private lessons, live in Calistoga, and have my art studio in Santa Rosa, California. Archives
December 2023
Categories
All
|