"Barn Snowscape"

“5 x 7″

Private Collection

This small work began as a study for a larger composition and took on a life of its own.  The main challenge for this work and for the larger painting was in balancing the warm and cool areas and in unifying the colors.  The background went in first with yellows, oranges and mixed violets for the forest and the trees.  I wanted to use blue  for the snow shadows – primarily cerulean and ultramarine – which I did.  The problem was that the foreground and back ground did not relate.

The solution was to pull background color into the mid and foreground, while bringing the cool blues up into the sky areas.  The barn itself contains colors from all areas of the painting.  Because of this and because it is the focal point of the painting,  it created a great deal of harmony and unity on its own.

There are three other significant locations where color was added specifically to create unity – the silo, where an intense spot of cerulean blue was added high, so that it would overlap the background, while using the deep violets from the woods on the lower parts;  the left forground snow cover has both violets and a spot of warm orange mingled with the ultramarine; and the fence post to the right, which anchors in the foreground and overlaps the mid-ground and background.  The post was the last item painted and received cool blues where it overlaps the background and warm orange-grays where it overlaps the cool snow shadows.

This and other works on this site are available for purchase. 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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“Crow Foot”

20″ x 20″

This work looks more like autumn than any other, although I had no particular season in mind. This work is more about color and design than anything else. The important subject is the play of light and shadow on the foreground tree trunk and on the ground. The contrasting of light and dark,warm and cool is a favorite concept for me. This painting uses both to present a view into a shadowy forest on a warm, sunny day. In many ways this is a minimalist work. There is little texture on either the tree trunks or on the forest floor or even in the paint marks themselves. There is consistency in the treatment of edges – nearly all shapes are hard-edged. The combination of these elements along with the warm dominance are unifying factors. The work uses simple shapes and forms with the rhythm of shadows providing movement and excitement. The square format is unusual for me and not really deliberate, although it seems to contribute to the modern, minimalist feel of the work. The original sketches, shown below were drawn in squares – for no particular reason, except that the square format appealed to me at the time. If you are interested in the process, read on….

As is often the case, I perused some old sketchbooks for ideas for this painting. In this case, one contained this series of three sketches of the foot of this old tree in the woods. The sketches are undated but it seems as if they had been done within the past few years. All were completed in an unusual square format. The sketches, shown below, are thumbnails each being approximately 2″ x 2″.

Thumbnail Sketches for “Crow Foot”

These sketches explore the composition of the shapes and values for the finished work. It is only since sharing my work on this blog that I have discovered how creation of a painting actually stretches over very long periods of time for me – months or years. Without dates, there is no way to be certain exactly when these sketches were completed. Clearly the pencil thumbnails convinced me that the composition should feature one main tree trunk with roots in the immediate foreground and lit by side light – since both color sketches feature that composition. Generally, the color sketches are completed after finding a value thumbnail sketch that I am comfortable with. As I recall, these were done sometime in the past year, although, again, they are undated. In rummaging through a portfolio of older works, I came upon these two color sketches, after I had completed the two studies shown below.

Color Sketches for “Crow Foot”

Two small compositions based on the same sketches. After discovering the pencil sketches, I completed these two color studies. Although they began as studies, I brought them to the stage of finished work and gave them titles.

“Old Crow 1″ “Old Crow 2″

Each of these works explores a slightly different viewpoint and points of emphasis. Both are somewhat less lively, even more foreboding and moody than the larger work. As studies, each helped in the decision process, especially in terms of color, shape and placement.

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