One painting done – “Satoh Tractors” – three to go.

The weather is great for plein air painting – sunny & warm with a light breeze.  Should be this way for the whole weekend.

Twenty artists are painting in and around Geneva, NY at the northern end of Seneca Lake today and tomorrow.  The paintings will be on exhibit tomorrow evening at the Opening Reception and again on Sunday afternoon.

Opening on Thursday, July 28th, is a two-person exhibit of new work from myself and ceramic artist Jessica Phillips.  The exhibit titled “Sacred Vessels & Vantages” features twelve new paintings created just for this exhibit.

With the theme words “sacred” & “vantages” I decided to create work in a format that would evoke the idea of vantages while focusing on the “sacred” moments of the rural landscape.  All twelve of these new paintings paintings were composed in this challenging format with the goal of creating works with balance, movement and visual focus.  These new works also bring focus to one aspect or another of a typical rural landscape in summer.

'Clouds& Sun II"

"Open Late"

The exhibit runs from July 28, 2011 through August 22, 2011 at the NAACO Gallery, 33 Main Street, North Adams, MA.

The public is invited to the Opening Reception on July 28th from 6 to 9pm.

Contact me if you have any questions, need directions or any other info.  Email me at tc@tonyconner.com or by phone at 802-375-5548.

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For this exhibit, I’m creating a series of works which are literally vistas in the form of wide panoramas – all of the paintings have  lengths measuring more than three times that of their height.  “Mid-Summer’s Day”, shown above has dimensions of 8″ x 29″.

Creating work for this exhibit has been a dual challenge.  There are a couple of technical challenges: first is composing in the panoramic format while maintaining focus, movement and balance in the works; second, for me anyway, is the art of creating the variety of greens that are evocative of the summer landscape.  Most of my landscape paintings depict either fall or winter.  Since I tend to mix my own secondary colors – orange, violet and green, it has been a challenge and a pleasure, working with the yellows and blues on my palette in various mixtures.

The second challenge is that of theme.  The word “sacred” will evoke meaning which is personal to everyone.  For me, living, observing and painting in a rural area, I cannot help but see something of the sacred in the beautiful scenery that is all around in this area.  It is the idea that it is possible to see beyond the ordinary, and perhaps even to the sacred, when taking the time to actually stop and look at what is all around.

All of the paintings in the series depict Vermont landscapes and include both studio and plein air works.

"Clouds & Sun"

The exhibit “Sacred Vessels & Vantages” opens with a public reception on Thursday, July 28, 2011  from 6 – 9 pm.  The exhibit is on view through August 22, 1011.

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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Plein Air sketch - Hillside tree line

Three sketches completed during my weekend class “Painting the Autumn Landscape in Watercolor”.    On Saturday, the first day of the class, we climbed a hillside behind the Taraden Bed & Breakfast in North Bennington, VT to paint the the visible from that spot.  It was a beautiful early fall day – just warm enough and with bright sunshine interrupted periodically by one of the fluffy and fast-moving clouds.   From our spot, it was possible to view the a great deal of the  peaks of the Green Mountains – from the north east to the south.  To the south and west, the distant Taconic Range was also visible.  I did these sketches during the day.

The first sketch was done earlier in the day, when the sky had relatively few low clouds that cast their shadows over the mountains. Because they were moving, we could watch the shadows race over the surface of the hills and mountains.  One of the biggest challenges when painting “en plein air” is handling the constantly changing conditions, especially the light and shadow conditions on the ground.  The solution is to sketch, in pencil, the main forms and then watch for an attractive pattern of shadow. Once it appears, quickly add the shadow shapes in pencil.  Once you start painting, you can refer to the light areas of the mountains and hills to get the local color, and watch for more cloud shadows to get that color.

Each of these sketches is about 6 x 8 in size and each was completed in less than10  minutes.  For me, the key to lively plein air sketches is working quickly.  The other advantage is that it will train you to see both the shape and color of the scene you are painting very quickly, which translates to greater skill as an artist.

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.

I enjoy welcoming visitors to my Studio Gallery. It is open by appointment – please contact me to arrange a visit.

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"Afternoon Farm"

“Afternoon Farm” is one of 13 works which will be on exhibit at the Bennington Free Library, 101 Silver Street Bennington, VT from August 28 through December 31, 2010.   Planned as an ever-changing exhibit, Wallworks provides an opportunity for patrons to enjoy fine art while visiting the Library, and to learn more about the many talented artists who live and work in our community.

The exhibit will feature 13 of my watercolor landscapes which depict the variety of color, texture, light, shade, and shadow of the seasons in Vermont.

The Opening Reception is Saturday, August 28, 2010 from 1pm – 3pm.  The public is invited. For more information, contact the artist at 802-375-5548 or email at mail@tonyconner.com.

The library can be contacted at  802-442-9051 or on the web at www.benningtonfreelibrary.org

I enjoy welcoming visitors to my Studio Gallery. It is open by appointment – please contact me to arrange a visit.

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"Armstrong Road"

Another painting done during the Billsboro Winery Plein Air Festival – and my personal favorite from the weekend.    For a plein air work, it is large – 14″ x 21″.  Generally I work at quarter sheet size, or smaller, when I paint outdoors.   I chose a larger size for this work mostly because of the nature of the landscape.  The geography of the area around Geneva, NY is mostly flat with some rolling hills and very large farm fields.  Unlike my home state of Vermont, this area features roads that stretch out straight toward the horizon, hardly broken by curves and turns.   The format of a half sheet of watercolor paper emphasizes the horizontal and seem particularly appropriate for this scene.

I wanted to capture the road stretching into the distance and the expansive fields of crops interrupted only by a few farm structures that, though vary large in reality, are dwarfed by the rest of the landscape.

The painting would suggest that it was a rainy day.  It wasn’t rainy, but the sky was moving and moody.  The puddle to the far left was not actually there.  The ditch was, but I felt that the ditch without a pool of water would be a bit uninteresting so I added the puddle and reflections.

It was also very breezy – I had one hand on the easel for most of the painting session.  During those times when I stepped back to take a look – I had also to be prepared to sprint to catch the easel from being blown completely over.   Just to show that plein air painting can be hazardous, it once blew over and whacked me upside the head while I was looking away – a week later, I still have the wound on my temple to show for it!

Why is it my favorite from the weekend?  Not totally certain but it came out fairly well given the trying conditions and the mild headache delivered by my easel halfway through the session!  This kind of subject always appeals to me – rural landscape, moody sky, the contrast of color and value.  This work was especially fun and challenging because of the variety of greens needed to separate one field from another.   I completed three other works during the weekend – “Lady in the Park” was posted earlier this week and the other two works “Balmanno Glass” & “Rose Hill Afternoon” can be seen on my facebook page.

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.

I enjoy welcoming visitors to my Studio Gallery. It is open by appointment – please contact me to arrange a visit.

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"Vents"

As sometimes happens when painting plein air, my recent Plein Air Workshop was visited by rain.  As a result, this work which began as a class demo was done while I was sheltered just inside a door to the back deck of the Media Barn at Taraden Bed & Breakfast.   The view was of  the next barn over and the massive vents lining the roof peak.

Selecting a good subject for a plein air painting involves seeing the big picture rather than the detail and simplifying from the overwhelming amount of subject matter.  In this case, my low – relative to the peak of the next barn – point of view, the swirling storm clouds in the sky and the interesting angles of the barn roof caught my attention.  The rain slick roof was reflective of  both the light and of the vents.

Although plein air paintings can be relatively accurate depictions of the artists surroundings,  it is generally my way to take liberties with color for most of my plein air paintings.  This one is no exception.  For the most part the scene in reality was a study in gray and green.  The sky, the vents themselves, and the sides of the white barn were all some shade of gray.  The barn trim and the one element of greenery – the tree at far left – were green.  Knowing that I would want to inject color, I took my cue from the vents, the tops of which were heavily weathered and corroded.  Thinking of corrosion as rust, I decided to include a heavy dose of orange  and related colors into the composition along with the local color greens.   With those two colors included, it was a conscious decision to create the painting based on a triad of secondaries — green, orange & violet – with the subtle violets infused into the grays.  The result is both harmonious and contrasting in a balanced way.

An interesting thing to note about the subject barn is that it was the studio for the noted abstract painter and one of the best known color field artists, Ken Noland – see his official website here, and his Wikipedia entry here.   The barn itself is very large and served Mr. Noland very well in the creation of the large works he was known for.

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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"River Valley"

4″ x 11″

Private Collection

With out going into a lot of detail about why, part of my painting process often leaves me with odd shaped leftover pieces of paper.  Many of them are in this “panoramic” format where one dimension is more than twice as long as the other.   The shape is well suited for a panoramic view of a landscape scene.    The scene depicted in “River Valley” is not any where in particular, but rather it is a made up location designed mostly to allow the depiction of deep, lush wooded hillsides and a sparkling, reflective river flowing through.

The summer landscape can be difficult to paint since there is an overwhelming amount of green.   In this case, I decided to focus on the look of deep, cool shade and shadow areas on the hillsides by pushing the color toward blue.  The sense of summer green is there but is subordinate to the blues.   Surrounded by so much dark and low intensity color, the ribbon of sparkling river stands out as a visual pathway through the painting and into the distance.

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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"Time Gone By"" Back to Basics"

The North Adams Artists Co-op gallery opens a new exhibit called “Back to Basics” next Thursday, May 27.  The Opening Reception is Thursday, May 27th, 2010 from 5 to 8pm and is open to the public. The exhibit runs May 27 – June 20, 2010.
The theme of the exhibit allows the artist to show work that may go in a few directions: simplification is obvious but the artist may also choose to go back to his/her beginnings, as an artist. We all have arrived at our current art/state through a series of progressive steps…so perhaps, the work for this exhibition re-examines where we came from, literally or figuratively.

Three of my works will be on view; “Time Gone By” shown above as well as “Common Old Man” and “Hoosick Falls”, below.

"Common Old Man"

"Hoosick Falls"

The NAACO Gallery is located at 33 Main Street, North Adams, Massachusetts, and is open Monday,  Thursday, Friday & Saturday from 11am – 6pm and Sunday from 12pm – 4pm.

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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"Bridge In Morning Light"

4″ x 9″

Private Collection

Since it has been non-stop snow here lately it has been hard to get outside for new material.  In the case of this small watercolor painting, I went back to my sketch books.  Covered bridges are plentiful in Vermont and are painted by many.   It can be hard to take on a subject so well explored by artists over time.  Most of what is to be said about the subject has been said.  That said, I dove in anyway.  The watercolor paper chosen for the painting is by Sennelier, a French art supply company known for its fine professional grade watercolor paint.  The paper is from a small watercolor block shaped in this long horizontal (or tall vertical) format.  The paper itself has a heavy coat of sizing which makes it “slick” – the pigments lie on the surface of the paper rather than becoming absorbed into the paper fibers.

The focus for this work was getting a good composition onto the unusual dimensions of the paper.   A long span of covered bridge seemed to be a good fit for the page.   Without any particular color scheme in mind, I chose colors that are favorites of mine – cerulean blue, Daniel Smith’s Quinacridone Deep Gold (I blogged about this color in a September post) and Dioxazine Violet.    Deep Gold suggests autumn, so the painting depicts the bridge in autumn.

I am always attracted to light effects.   Light as it appears early and late in the day is particularly appealing in the way the slanting warm light affects all the surfaces it touches and causes any standing object to cast long shadows.    The combination of two cool colors and one very potent warm color suggested a play of light and shadow on the long side of the bridge.

The finished work seems to have captured the look.

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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