Tony Conner

New Plein Air work – Cape Ann, MA

After participating in Arts Fest Beverly this past Saturday, I spent two days painting “en plein air” in the Cape Ann area of Massachusetts.   Cape Ann is one of my favorite places to paint – it features quaint New England coastal villages; rocky and rugged north eastern coastlines; picturesque inlets and harbors; and dramatic panoramas of open ocean.

Manchester-by-the-Sea is one of those quaint villages – picturesque and paintable.  Surprising, I guess, that I chose subjects that are not so quaint.  “Repair & Refit” is a painting of a sailer, up on the blocks for repair.  This was painted in the afternoon with light coming from high in the sky.  I liked the look and feel of this large boat being supported by relatively small, by comparision, metal stands.   The top-lighting was also casting a sliver of a shadow under the boat – another attraction of the scene.

In the morning, prior to painting this scene in the boat yard, I painted the MBTA drawbridge over the inlet to the Manchester harbor.   At the time I arrived and began looking for subjects,  the bridge was up.  I sketched and started painting.  In just a short time, I could hear the first train from Boston in the distance and the bridge was lowered and stayed down while I finished the painting.

The attraction of this subject was the contrast between the heavy, industrial and obviously man-made bridge and control tower, and the buildings in the background, with the peaceful calm of the harbor.  The background buildings are the Manchester Marine boatyard where I painted the “Repair & Refit”, above.

On Monday morning, I returned to an old haunt – Rocky Neck, in Gloucester MA.  Rocky Neck is home to one of the oldest artist colonies in the country and is still home to many artists and galleries.  Edward Hopper spent several summers in Gloucester, mostly painting buildings, factories and railyards.  His famous watercolor, “The Mansard Roof” is a depiction of one of the homes on Rocky Neck – noted on the map of Rocky Neck at the link above – note, I don’t encourage wandering around the home since it is private property.

Normally I paint harbor or ocean scenes when I am here.  This time, the light striking one of the homes caught my eye and I ended up with the painting below.

The home seems actually divided into rental spaces, thus the name.  This work was rather quickly done, with large areas of color and value laid in with a large round brush, all at once and detail minimized.

In exploring the area, I stumbled on the Coolidge Reservation.  It is a beautiful nature preserve located between Manchester and Gloucester along Rt 127.  More information about the reservation is located at the link above.  There was much that could have been painted.  Pressed for time, I chose to do a quick painting looking west and southwest from the area know as Ocean Lawn.  This spot, which includes a long lawn that slopes down toward the ocean from the high point on the reservation has fabulous views of the coastline to the west and southwest, and of the open ocean to the south.   The day I was there, the sky was mottled with cumulus clouds that created light reflections on the calmer surface of the water.

The focus of the painting is the partly cloudy sky and the subtle reflections, divided by the coastline receding into the distance. I am certain to return to the Coolidge Reservation for more painting in the future.

Contact me if you have an interest in this or any other paintings on the site. Email me at tc@tonyconner.com or by phone at 802-375-5548.

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