Color and Composition Art Workshop

Color and Composition

Taught by Karen Lynn Ingalls
Saturday and Sunday • March 28-29, 2020

How many times have you been stuck on a painting, not knowing just what it was that wasn't working? Frustrating, isn't it?

The Red Tree • Acrylics on full sheet watercolor paper • © Karen Lynn Ingalls

In this workshop, you'll get specific, practical tools and know-how to help you create compelling color and compositions. You'll be able to identify what makes a painting work, and know how to fix it when it's not.

The Romance of Books • Acrylics on canvas • © Karen Lynn Ingalls

You'll start out by learning all about choosing the colors of your palette, and learning how to make them work together well.

Next you'll learn about basic principles of composition, design, and color in context, and see examples clearly illustrating each principle, so you can put them into practice in your own paintings.

Vineyard Tree • 36"x 48" • Acrylics on canvas • © Karen Lynn Ingalls

You will learn:

how to choose the colors of your palette
how to make your colors work well together
the two basic kinds of paintings, compositionally speaking, no matter what the subject matter (or lack of subject matter)
what a focal point is, whether a painting has or needs one, and how to find where to put it in your painting, if it does need one
how to lead the viewer's eyes through the painting
how to manage converging lines
the importance of values, and how to use them effectively
the use of complementary colors and color intensity to lead the viewer's eyes through the painting
how colors affect our perception of other colors in the painting
how to find what isn't working in your painting
and more!

Dusk in the Vineyards • 48" x 48" • Acrylics on canvas • © Karen Lynn Ingalls

Whether you paint landscapes, still lifes, portraits, or abstracts, or work in any other genre, the same principles apply. When you make better compositions and know how to work with color, you'll make better paintings!

We'll also conduct this as kind of a clinic for paintings – you'll learn how to diagnose their ailments, and be able to prescribe treatments. Bring two or three of your own paintings that aren't working, any photographs you have of your sources for each painting, and one or two canvases on which you can work out new solutions to the painting or paintings of your choice.

You can also bring your own photographs and sketches as resources for new paintings you'd like to work on. (Contact Karen if you'd like to do this with work in a medium other than acrylics, such as water-mixable oils, pastels, watercolors, or colored pencils. Though these principles apply to oil paints, too, for toxicity reasons, you won't be able to bring oil paints to work with.)

Sunset Meadow • 36" x 48" • Acrylics on canvas • © Karen Lynn Ingalls

Note: This is about problem-solving, not about judgement. You'll also learn how to solve a painting's problems without the judgements of your inner critic.

And you'll go home with Karen's mini-book on Color and Composition — a "toolbox" of solutions — specific, practical tools and know-how — that you can use to get out of, and avoid, those painting predicaments from here on out. Join us, and learn how to create paintings with truly compelling compositions and color!

Click here to download
the 2020 Color and Composition flyer.

Date: Saturday and Sunday,
March 28-29, 2020
Time: 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM both days – bring your lunch!
Sign up early to ensure your place.

Location: Calistoga Art Center
1435 North Oak Street
Calistoga, California

Cost: $195 for CAC members
and $220 for non-members. Includes Karen's mini-book on
Color and Composition, which you can use as an ongoing reference and resource. Painting materials
not included — bring your own (no oil paints, but water mixable oils are fine) or talk to Karen if you'll need supplies.

Maximum of 12 people;
minimum of 4.
Sign up early to ensure your place!

For more information, call Karen Lynn Ingalls at (707) 942-0197.
Download Materials List here.

Arts and Crafts, painting of trees at dusk, California landscape painting of trees, by Karen Lynn Ingalls

Breakfast al Fresco • 12" x 12" • Acrylics on canvas • © Karen Lynn Ingalls

landscape painting of rural California, by Karen Lynn Ingalls

The tools you'll come home with apply to abstract paintings, too!

fauve painting of trees in spring, colorist landscape art of trees in spring, by Karen Lynn Ingalls