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.

If you'd like to find out more, here's a link to my art workshops website with all the info.

Spring 2011 painting class schedule

Just-Spring • © 2010 Karen Lynn Ingalls

We're into the second week of the March/April session already (remember, no class this Friday) – and here's the class schedule for the rest of this spring:

April/May: (Note the week off for spring break!)

Wednesdays: April 13, spring break, 27, May 4, 11

Fridays: April 15, spring break, 29, May 6, 13

May/June:

Wednesdays: May 18, 25, June 1, June 8

Fridays: May 20, 27, June 3, 10

Location:

The new Calistoga Art Center,

Napa County Fairgrounds, Cropp Building,

1435 North Oak Street, Calistoga, California

Spring 2011 painting classes at the Calistoga Art Center

Some of the paintings from the Spring 2010 Student Art Show (you can find more photos of the show at Spring 2010 Student Show pics!) • photo © 2010 Karen Lynn Ingalls

The new year has arrived, and it's time for Acrylic Painting classes to begin again at the Calistoga Art Center. This will be the Art Center's last month in Calistoga's historic Masonic Building, on the main street in town. The light there is spectacular.… Feel like painting objects in light from the windows? This is your last chance.…

Painters at work in the Spring 2010 Acrylic Painting class

The first four-week session runs from January 12th through the beginning of February.

Then the Art Center moves to its new location, in the Cropp Building, at the Napa Valley Fairgrounds, 1435 North Oak Street, Calistoga. We'll have 3,000 square feet of space! With skylights, concrete floors, and a big parking lot! It's going to be a wonderful space for us – I hope you'll join us!

The remaining spring sessions will be:

February 9th through March 18th

March 23rd through April 15th

April 27th through May 20th

You can find more information online at www.calistogaartcenter.org.

New Class Session starts this week!

Where is the year going? It seems to be flying by. Only two more painting sessions at the Calistoga Art Center remain before the holidays! The nearly-November four-week session begins this Friday, on October 29th, from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m., and continues on 11-5, 11-12, and 11-19-10.

Then we'll take a week off for Thanksgiving, and return with a three-week session on Friday afternoons, on 12-3, 12-10, and 12-17. Note: the classes are only being offered on Fridays at this time.

I hope you can join us!

New class session begins this week

View of some of Karen Lynn Ingalls's paintings

at the Calistoga Art Center, during Napa Valley Open Studios

Our second four–week fall Acrylic Painting class session begins this week, with classes on Wednesday, September 29th, from 1 to 4 p.m., and on Friday, October 1st, from 1 to 4 p.m.

If you're new to the class, you can find out more, and enroll, and download a materials list, at http://www.calistogaartcenter.org/adultmatureteenclasses.html. I look forward to seeing you!

If you'd like to see something of what you might have missed during Open Studios, if you weren't able to stop by, you can see these posts at my painting blog, Karen Lynn Ingalls: Line, Color, Paint, Joy:

Napa Valley Open Studios 2010 - first weekend

The magic of light

Napa Valley Open Studios 2010 - second weekend

Our plein air paintout at Judy's place

Donna and Lynn paint the view

Here are a few photos from last Wednesday's plein air paintout at Judy's place – our latest class field trip. The weather was beautiful, the views were amazing, and we had great food, too. I'm looking forward to seeing how the paintings get finished in the studio....

Zoe sleeping in the shade by the fountain

The view - with Paoletti Winery closest, Barbara Nechis's studio in the middle ground (looking tiny and surrounded by trees), and Clos Pegase Winery further back on the right

Jim paints the view

Jaime and Dan (who's away from his easel) paint the fountain

Thanks to Judy for inviting us to paint her beautiful view and gardens, and for being such a gracious and welcoming hostess!

Classes begin again on June 16th and June 18th

Acrylic Painting classes begin again on Wednesday, June 16th, from 1:00 to 4:00, for an eight-week session on Wednesdays, and on Friday, June 18th, from 1:00 to 4:00, for eight weeks of classes on Fridays. Look for us at the Calistoga Art Center, upstairs in the Masonic Building.

Questions? You can click on the Art Classes page here on this blog (see the tab above?), and read more, or go to the Calistoga Art Center's website. You can register online there, and download a materials list — or I'll see you on the first day of class. There's a minimum of ten students per class. Give me a call if you need to know anything else.

Spring 2010 Student Show pics!

Left to right: paintings by Cindi Buell, Randa Durell (two), and Judy Revelle

Left to right: paintings by Dan Dinneane, Cindi Buell, Randa Durell (two), and Judy Revelle

Left to right, top: paintings by Emma Klement, Donna Hodges, and Brigitta Weiderhold

Left to right, bottom: paintings by Emma Klement, Diane Kuykendall, and Patsy Hahn (two)

Left to right, top: paintings by Brigitta Wiederhold and Pat Branstetter

Left to right, bottom: paintings by Pat Branstetter and Jennifer Deutsch

Top: paintings by Jamie Zukowski; bottom: paintings by Christina Amore

Left to right: paintings by Judy Revelle, Yvonne Henry, and Sally Briggs

Left and top: paintings by Patricia Campbell; bottom and right: paintings by Corliss Schloemp

Left to right: paintings by Kari Martin, Dan Dinneane, and Kari Martin

Left to right: paintings by Bret Lang, Nanci Smith, Jennifer Deutsch, and Cindi Buell

Paintings by Jay Hodges (from acrylic and plein air painting classes)

Left to right: paintings by Bret Lang and Jay Hodges

Left to right: paintings by Diane Kuykendall, Donna Hodges, Sally Briggs, and Bret Lang

Left to right: paintings by Brigitta Weiderhold (top and bottom), Donna Hodges (top and bottom), and Diane Kuykendall (top and bottom), from plein air and acrylic painting classes

Here are the photos of this spring's painting classes student show!

Painting self portraits

Em (behind easel) and Judy (in front) paint, while Betty packs up to go.

Here are photos of some of the folks in the Wednesday class – most painting self portraits, all but one of them for the first time.

Cindi paints her first self portrait.

Dan, Jamie, and Diane paint, with collage pieces by high school students on the wall behind them.

Diane, an experienced painter, paints her second self portrait.

Trish works on a painting of a rose.

Em paints her first self portrait.

They did a great job! (Thanks to Dan for lending me his phone for the photos!)

Self portrait demonstrations

A week ago, I demonstrated painting self portraits in the Wednesday and Friday classes. In the Wednesday class, I was asked to paint myself smiling – a difficult thing, since concentrating on the work at hand draws one's face into a serious, often stern expression.

Karen Lynn Ingalls self portrait in progress ( photo courtesy of Christina)

The Friday self-portrait I spent less time on. It has a longer way to go until it is completed, but you can clearly see how I found my composition and blocked in the big shapes with color. I'm just beginning to define those shapes a little further on the planes of the face. For each of these, I used only a primaries palette – yellow, red, and blue – with white.

New classes begin next week

Good news! Napa Valley College is continuing to offer its free community education classes, which include the adult art classes at the Calistoga Art Center. And they begin next week!

I will be teaching two sections of Acrylic Painting Workshop - one on Wednesday afternoons (starting August 19th, 2009th) from 1:00 to 4:00, and one on Fridays (starting August 21st) from 1:00 to 4:00.

The college catalog mistakenly listed the Friday course as a Mixed Media Painting class (which it was during the summer). Ooops! I will be glad to work with anyone who wants to take the class as a Mixed Media class, though.

I hope that if you know anyone who is interested in the classes, you will pass this information along to them....