{"id":11915,"date":"2022-02-01T17:29:22","date_gmt":"2022-02-02T01:29:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=11915"},"modified":"2022-04-07T15:40:53","modified_gmt":"2022-04-07T22:40:53","slug":"where-palate-meets-palette-artist-christina-locascio-01","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=11915","title":{"rendered":"Where Palate Meets Palette Artist \u2014 Christina LoCascio \u201801"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Part of being an artist is bringing pieces of yourself into your work, but painter Christina LoCascio<\/a> \u201801<\/b>, whose work is featured in \u201cGauchos Gone Grape<\/a>,\u201d takes this connection to a new level. She is truly living her creative life among the vines, painting with wine as a medium and working exclusively with wines from her family\u2019s Larner Winery<\/a> in Santa Barbara\u2019s Ballard Canyon<\/a>, where LoCascio, her winemaker husband Michael Larner<\/a>, and their children Steven (10) and Sienna (8) make their home.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When LoCascio began experimenting with wine painting in 2002 she couldn\u2019t find any information about how to do it. \u201cThat was before Instagram or Facebook. Now if you search the hashtag #wineart there\u2019s a bunch of artists that are painting with wine, but I feel like what makes what I\u2019m doing special is that it\u2019s such a part of my life.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Double majoring in communication and art, LoCascio got her first real exposure to the world of wine in her junior year as an intern for Touring & Tasting Magazine<\/i><\/a>. \u201cIt was my 21st birthday and they sent me home with a bottle of wine.\u201d That job also had her researching and writing about wineries and grapes and very quickly she was hooked.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After graduation she worked in the wine industry in Temecula for a short time, until 2002, when Sunstone Winery<\/a> scion Bion Rice<\/a> lured her back to Santa Barbara wine country with an offer to work at Artiste Winery<\/a>, a new venture featuring art-inspired blends that perfectly combined LoCascio\u2019s interests in wine and art.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The idea for painting with wine grew out of classes she would host for wine club members at Artiste that used wine in a similar fashion to watercolor.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Those first few paintings led to a group exhibition in Santa Barbara and then an offer to create wine labels for Artiste. \u201cThe exposure of working at the tasting room, having my art on display and then having my art on the wine bottles was great for me,\u201d says LoCascio, who went on to have nine shows at Artiste.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She continues to show her work at the tasting room gallery, although she stopped working there in 2008, when the family opened Larner Winery. They now have a tasting room in Los Olivos, where LoCascio\u2019s art is on display. \u201cFrom the very beginning, I was drawn to wine and all the wonderful things about it and how it combined art and science and history and so many things,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Wine remains a consistent media for her work \u2014 the many shades of red comprise her color palette and she uses white wine to \u201clift\u201d color in a similar way that watercolorists use water to soften their paint. And while wine is a frequent subject, she also delves into figurative art and architectural paintings. \u201cI think that in the time that I\u2019ve been painting with wine my art has evolved and it continues to change. I have gone through a lot of different types of things,\u201d says LoCascio, who has recently begun experimenting with leaves as well as the fermentation process of the wine itself. Exploding wine bottles and incorporating spills into female forms are some of her other recent artistic explorations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, when harvest calls, the paintbrush comes down and it\u2019s all hands on deck for the family business. \u201cWe\u2019re really busy, but I\u2019ve come to realize that that\u2019s all part of the process. So, when we\u2019re bringing in grapes and doing the punch down and I\u2019m helping with the wine, and watching the fermentations, it\u2019s just kind of part of it and it all inspires me to think of different ideas,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think the act of being in the winery making the wine is inspiring for the art, too.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"UC<\/a>

UC Santa Barbara Magazine, Winter 2021<\/p><\/div>\n

Originally published in the Fall\/Winter 2021 issue of UC Santa Barbara Magazine<\/a><\/em>.\u00a0Cover illustration by Yumiko Glover<\/a>. To see the story as it originally appeared click \u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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