Oil in the Family: Mom-and-daughter painters to appear at La Jolla Art & Wine Festival, Oct. 12-13

The paintings in Krista Schumacher’s La Jolla Shores apartment have spilled out of her studio into every room. Most are in various stages of drying.

“Be careful of that one behind you, it’s wet!” she warns the Light.

Most are impressionistic landscapes, some can take up to six months to dry.

“You know, they don’t teach oil-painting in art schools anymore,” Krista said.

Krista and her mom, Florida resident Kathy Schumacher, will be among the 160 artists featured at this year’s Art & Wine Festival, Saturday and Sunday, along Girard Avenue and Prospect Streets. It will be their first public showing together.

“I cannot wait!” Krista says.

As she speaks, Krista begins a piece for a series on La Jolla Shores. She explains that it’s the view she fell in love with while kayaking for the first time. A canvas previously coated with the color burnt sienna is selected. Then, different blues for the ocean and sky are layered on with a palette knife. The sienna peeks through the textured surface in what she calls “organic” places.

Krista Schumacher demonstrates how she paints by creating a new addition to her La Jolla Shores series of paintings.

(COREY LEVITAN)

When a faint resemblance to Henri Matisse and Paul Cezanne is mentioned, Krista demurs. Her only real influence is her mother, she said. Krista said she took painting up at age 16, when her mom took art lessons in Niceville, Florida, where she and her Air-Force husband retired and sent their daughter to high school.

“We’re best friends, and my mom was really into painting, so I wanted to be into it, too,” Krista explained.

One day, Kathy was taught palate-knife painting and then developed her own approach to it.

“I went home and played with it and developed my own technique,” Kathy says, appearing in her daughter’s apartment via FaceTime on a MacBook (At the moment, she’s waiting around an art gallery in Sandestin, Florida, hoping to sell some of her paintings to walk-in customers.)

So, encouraged by her mother, Krista took up palette-knife painting as well.

Not a lot of artists like to paint this way because it’s so expensive, she explains. (It’s not unusual for Krista to spend $300 alone on oil paint not including a canvas and frame.)

“I knew when she moved to California, she would be successful painting with a knife, because this is what collectors like,” Kathy said. “They like texture.”

Krista Schumaker coats her knife in colors that will represent the ocean.

(COREY LEVITAN)

Krista — a former elementary-school art teacher who once lacked the confidence to become a fulltime artist — moved to La Jolla three years ago because her husband landed a job as a Northrup-Grumman engineer.

Someplace called Niceville is a fitting hometown for the duo. Krista claims she skipped right over the prerequisite I-hate-my-mom teenage-girl phase.

“I’m the perfect daughter,” Krista says, laughing

“No, I’m the perfect mom,” Kathy replies, laughing louder.

This will be Krista’s third Art & Wine Festival. At her first, she only sold a single painting. But, when the customer inquired about buying more, it was enough to convince her to continue.

“Now, I’ll come into people’s homes and they’ll have me do their entire house and it’ll be a massive project,” Krista said, adding that she does the artwork for Ligne Roset furniture store. “The community has been incredibly supportive of my art and me. La Jolla has been a dream for an artist.”

Kathy interrupts to say she has a new “collector” (what the Schumachers call their customers). This one purchased her paintings of a heron and some poppies.

“Look, she looks like Marlo Thomas!” Kathy announces, pointing her camera toward a waving woman who, in fact, resembles Thomas in “That Girl.”

“Congratulations!” Krista says.

Art & Wine Festival 101

The La Jolla Art & Wine Festival is a free, two-day event that shuts down Girard Avenue to traffic from Prospect Street to Torrey Pines Road. The 11th annual festival — taking place 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 12 and 13 — features 160 art vendors from across the U.S. and Mexico, 18 wine and 14 craft beer and spirits vendors, gourmet food from The Melting Pot Fondue Restaurant and We Olive, and live music, among other attractions.

The Geppetto’s Family Art Center gives children the opportunity to make their own binary-code bracelets, decorate small paper parachutes and meet an animal ambassador. (As always, a limo will be available there for the tykes to paint.) And 10 local pet rescues will be on hand to facilitate pet adoptions. The wine and beer gardens are back by popular demand.

According to organizers, all profits raised benefit underfunded programs such as art, music, science, physical education, technology, and on-site medical care at all La Jolla public schools (including, for the first time, La Jolla High).

— Want to know more? Call (619) 233 5008 or visit ljawf.com for event details, festival map, list of artists, entertainment schedule, and list of wine & beer garden participants.