There is a new watercolor painting “on the board”, as I like to put it. The paintings that I create in the studio are stretched on gator board, so anything that I am currently working on is “on the board”. While the painting is not complete, I often get asked about the process creating a painting. The process used to create this painting is a good example.

The beginning of our winter was snowier than usual, so it had me thinking about the landscape as it looks and feels covered with snow.

All new paintings have to start with an inspiration and an idea. When beginning a new work, I often look back at sketchbooks – new and old - for the inspiration. This time around, I came upon a pencil sketch created over two years ago.

The sketch was made on site in an area west of Shaftsbury, VT. I call it the Myers Road area, because it’s generally the road I take to find a good painting or sketching spot.

Although the sketch was done on a cloudy and - according to the notes scribbled on the page - windy November day, there was no snow on the ground. When looking at the sketch this time around, the value arrangement was such that I was reminded of a snow covered landscape. The inspiration was found – rolling hills and farmland on a cold winter day.

When creating a studio painting, I create many sketches – both in pencil and with watercolor. In a way, these sketches are the process since they allow me to explore various arrangements of shape, color and value that will support the main idea of the work. For this composition, the initial few pencil thumbnail sketches and color compositions were created concurrently, working on one, going to another, maybe coming back to an earlier one and so on.

This is the page with my pencil sketches – it is the page from a 9” x 12” sketchbook. All of the sketches, even the larger one at the top took minutes to complete, at most. Although it may appear that they were all were created at the same time, they were actually created individually, from top to bottom and left to right between January 16 and January 22, as a reaction or response to an earlier pencil or color sketch.

The first color sketches were created based on the first (topmost) pencil sketch.

This sketch explores abstract design and color. Another initial color sketch, not shown here,  was painted to explore shape and certain details.

After a couple of days of living with the initial sketches, I went back to work on the composition. For this part, I wanted to create some additional color sketches in order to explore some different color mixtures and different treatment of the sky. In all, four color studies were created, each about 6” x 9” in size. The sketch below seemed to best support the main idea.

All four sketches explored color combinations and value shapes as they might appear in the finished work. At this stage,  none of them grabbed me. I liked the composition of shapes and value, but felt that none depicted the emotion and drama I wanted in the painting.

I took a break from working on the sketches and decided to refresh the paint on my palette. Maybe it was the look of the paint as it oozed from the tubes, but a couple colors that I hadn’t considered previously really caught my eye. I quickly  worked these colors into three new color sketches shown in order below.

These sketches came together quickly. The first is very abstract, concerned more with shape and value. The second is a bit more representative and focuses on balance, contrast and movement. The third explores color and refines the foreground detail just a bit.

If you are still with me this far, congratulations and thank you. In some respects, the process is tedious and boring looking in from the outside.  It was difficult to keep the description of it this short. Creation of  this composition played out over the course of about one week.  In reality, this process can stretch out over the course of days, weeks or months. What is described here is the externally active parts of the process. What I have left largely un-described is the back and forth action between activity and thought; between exploration and evaluation. It is in this part of the process that the painting is truly created. 

With inspiration, idea and composition in hand, the paper and board were prepared, the composition transferred and the painting underway. The painting that results from this process will be posted as soon as it is done, most likely within the coming week.

Tony’s watercolor painting “Prairie Oak” will be exhibited as part of the Southern Vermont Arts Center 16th Annual Winter Members Exhibition.  The exhibit opens with a reception on Saturday, January 12 from 2:00 - 4:00pm, and continues through Tuesday, February 5, 2008.

“Prairie Oak”

“Prairie Oak” is a studio painting inspired by a work painted on location. The subject of the painting would seem to be the tree, whose shape dominates the pictoral space. Actually, the tree is the foil for the real subject with is the light that strikes portions of the trunk directly and reflects up into the branches snuggled up under the dense summer canopy. Much of the painting is executed with a very direct manner, laying in color and value in a single application. The foliage canopy especially was painted in this way. In contrast, the effect of reflected light on the trunk was created in a very methodical application of color layered in washes, one over the other. The result is a work rich in color and light which evoke the feeling of sitting under a large shady tree on a a summer day.

As I mentioned earlier, this painting was developed from a work painted on location. Despite the title - “Prairie Oak” - the genesis of the painting comes from a work painted in a location far from any prairie. “Common Old Man” is the original, on-location painting.

“Common Old Man”

“Common Old Man” is a painting of a weathered old tree on Boston Common - hard to be further from the prairie. At first glance, the relationship is not very evident. Certainly, the technique is not similar. Like most of my on location painting, this work is very direct and instinctive. Looking closely though it is possible to discern the basic structure of the “Prairie Oak”. Obviously, the setting of this painting is such that there would have been a lot of other things happening in the near and distant backgrounds. Those things were eliminated in this painting, giving the work a somewhat “prairie” feeling. That attitude was retained in the studio work.

It is that time when, in this part of the country, winter decends under the mantle of white. .. except that it is not white.  If I were describing it, I would say it decends under a multi-colored mantle of blues and violets, while at various times the sky glows with tints of just about any color imaginable.

“After Snow”

This watercolor painting depicts the landscape after a storm has dropped fresh new snow and the sun begins to peek out again.  Most of my watercolor paintings are painted very directly. This painting was worked using the wet-into-wet technique to capture the texture of new fallen snow, the sparse weeds, bare trees and shrubbery and the over all pleasantly soft look to the newly snow-covered land.

“4:30PM”

Both “4:30PM” and “January Sky” are works that depict winter sky at the approach of dusk which occurs very early, especially in early winter.  Although the look of winter is cold with its cool hues of blue and violet, winter skies are often bright and filled with the warmest of light.  Often, the evening sky is filled with the wispy clouds of winter highlighted and shaded with both warm and cool color.

“January Sky”

Winter is when the sun is low in the sky and nearly all light is raking light, creating long and deep shadows on the snow. The painting “Winter Light” depicts just such a time - perhaps mid morning or mid afternoon.

“Winter Light”