Feb. 27, 2012 - Sycamore Tree and Wallomsac River, North Bennington, Vermont

Sycamore Tree and Walloomsac River, North Bennington, Vermont. The large, old sycamore on the far side of the bank, with its branches reaching out over the river were the main attraction for this sketch although the river dominates most of the sketch. The color palette for this work reverted back to the winter colors, I’ve referred to so often in these posts.  Certain subjects call for a palette that respects the local color.  This one almost required it, if only to bring out the cool blue shade on the surface of the sycamore tree.  In considering it, I suppose that the subtlety was part of the attraction of the scene.
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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Feb. 26, 2012 - Neighbors House And Yard From Den Window

Neighbors House and Yard From Den Window.  Quick sketch done looking out the den window.  Sunny winter afternoon – strong sunlight and shadows. I used the more colorful palette as with recent sketches in this one. In several of the recent sketches, I’ve mentioned using cadmium red and cerulean blue.  This combination is a personal favorite of mine.  Mixed fairly equally, the combination produces a light gray, delicate in color, but – due to the heavy opacity of the cad red and the large, sedimentary pigments in cerulean blue – the mixture can be dense and and rather opaque. The combination is best used in light washes.  The shadow area on the house is done with this combination.  Note that the colors tend to separate in a fluid wash – this is one of the things I enjoy about this particular combination.

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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Feb 24, 2012 - Farm On Middle Pownal Road, Pownal, Vermont

Farm on Middle Pownal Road, Pownal, Vermont. Seems that I’ve been visiting Pownal, VT a good bit recently.  This small quick sketch was done looking at another farm in Pownal, this one along a dirt road known as Middle Pownal Road.  Like my previous two sketches (Feb 22 & Feb 23), this one takes a minimal approach and puts more emphasis on the effect of light and overall design than it does on capturing reality.  The color palette for this sketch is a return to the one from Feb 22 with cad red and thalo blue dominant and the addition of cerulean and raw sienna.  Although this is a much less finished work than many others in this series, it’s simplicity brings focus to the main theme which is the bright, winter morning light striking the side of the barn. The sketch is built with all of the elements supporting that single theme – light struck trees, long shadows and snowy fields also capturing the bright sunlight.
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Feb. 21, 2012 - Deep Woods Near Chester Vermont

Deep Woods Near Chester, Vermont.  In traveling from one place to another and with a full schedule, it was difficult to find time for a sketch today.  This scene presented itself so I pulled over and made a quick go of it.

I’ve always been attracted to sunlight filtering through the tree canopy and spilling onto snow pack.  The contrast of deep gray shadows against the patches of light along with tree trunks displaying various conditions of light, shade and shadow is so appealing that I usually have difficulty not stopping everytime I see something like this.

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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Feb. 19, 2012 - Tree Trunks in the "Y" Woods

Tree Trunks in the “Y” woods.  Today is the second day of my Wet into Wet Watercolor workshop and rather than try to start another sketch during lunch, like yesterday, I did this work in the morning before leaving for the class.  Our neighborhood has the great benefit of having a preserved stand of woods in its midst.  Called the “Y” woods, for reasons that I don’t know, it is a great place to walk the dog, ride a trail bike, XC ski (when there is enough snow to do so) or just stroll through.  It is home to all sorts of wild critters, from the mundane – rabbits, mice, squirrels, deer – to the somewhat exotic – bear, moose, fox, coyote and even, according to one neighbor, Canadian Lynx! It is common to hear the call of owls emanating from the woods at night.  In fact, while out walking the dog just a couple nights ago, we both heard the call of a Great Horned Owl low and rumbling through the trees!   This little scene presented itself near the edge of the woods as the morning sun caught the standing and fallen trees and cast gray-blue shadows.

For the first time in this series,  I used Fabriano Aquarello paper fitted into a home-made sketch book.  Being a slick paper, it works in a very similar way to the paper in the Moleskine Watercolor Sketchbook.

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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Feb. 15, 2012 - Marie Hill Farm, Andover Vermont

Marie Hill Farm, Andover Vermont.  This farm sits on a hill along the north side of Vt Rt 11, between Londonderry and Chester, Vermont.   I travel along this route often and notice the farm everytime.  On this day, the scene struck me as being particularly “wintery” during a year when we’ve really not had much of a winter.

The sketch itself was done with very fluid washes applied quickly and directly.  The colors are from my four-part “winter palette” plus a little cerulean blue.

I did this sketch in a Canson Montvale Watercolor Field Sketchbook.  It’s the first time I’ve used this sketchbook for this series, and had forgotten how much I really like it for plein air sketching.  The paper is not all that absorbent, but has a soft, slightly textured surface which is terrific for flowing washes and direct work.
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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Feb 13, 2012 - Shimmering Stream Off Myers Road Shaftsbury Vermont

Shimmering Stream off Myers Road, Shaftsbury, VT.  A busier day than usual kept me from doing anything too ambitious.  This little stream flows under Myers Road at the intersection with Bennett Hill Road in Shaftsbury.  I’ve passed it and noticed it many times, but never stopped to paint.  Needing a subject to work on quickly, I thought of this little scene and decided to make it my sketch of the day.  Normally on winter days, I find a good scene which I can see from inside my car.  Meaning there has to be a way to see the scene while parked in a safe location.  This view is actually not visible from any safe parking location, so I parked the car, jumped out with my Moleskine watercolor sketchbook and pencil and walked to where I could get this view point.  I put the pencil sketch in, did my best to burn colors and values into my brain, and went back to the car.  A couple times, I’d leave the sketch while it was still wet, get out, and go back over just to make sure I was getting the look of the scene.   Finally, I finished after about 25 minutes.  The sketch is about 4 1/2 “ x 8” and done in a Moleskine watercolor sketchbook.
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Feb 12, 2012 - Neighbors Sun Porch In Morning Light

Neighbors Sun Porch in Morning Light.  This view is out the window on the west side of my studio which looks into my neighbors back yard, the back of their house and their sun porch.  On Feb 6, I sketched the view out the large picture window on the eastside of the studio, which gives me a view of the back of our house and some other neighbors homes.

In the interest of full disclosure, this sketch is actually a continuation.  Based on the notes in the sketchbook, it appears I began this work some time in March of 2008.  Not sure if I decided to abandon it at that point or thought it was finished.  In looking at it again this morning, it appeared to be unfinished, even for a sketch.

So, I picked it up again and began to work on it.  The first thing I noticed were the number of important elements I had left out of the initial start: the shadowy shape of the tree trunk at the far left; the curvy branch that sweeps diagonally down across the middle of the composition, the tops of trees and branches that stand above the rooflines; and, not least, the in-through-out effect of the sunporch windows at the far right.  Certain of these missing elements were sketched in with pencil, some were simply rendered with brush and paint.

This sketch is on Canson Montval paper.  Like the Aquabee paper, Montval is described as “cold press’, but is not quite as toothy as most cold press papers.  It is also a “slick” surface – meaning that it is not very absorbent – so both the water and the pigment sit on, rather than being absorbed into, the fibers of the paper.  It is a surface I enjoy painting on anyway, although I use it exclusively for sketches, not for studio paintings.
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Feb. 10, 2012 Beechwood Road Looking South, Hoosick Falls NY

Beechwood Road, Looking South, Hoosick Falls NY.   I’ve painted this location twice in the past – both times as autumn scenes.  This time the scene also resembles late autumn even though it was actually painted in mid-February. There should be lots of snow on the ground, covering these farm fields but, as I have reported in earlier posts, it has been unusually mild and snowless all winter long.

I found this scene both dramatic and simple, with clear sky, bright sunlight and large expanses of field and woods.  In one way, this was a watercolor painters dream scene, with all the elements laid out in large, simple shapes, and a nice balance of warm and cool hues.

My aim was to transfer the simplicity to paper.  I tried to emphasize the large shapes and warm/cool contrasts with simple, flat and hard-edged washes.

The warm burnt orange of the fields was pushed in both the foreground and distant fields.  The actual local color was more in line with the color seen in the left part of the middle field.  Why do that?  Catching light on the middle field required that it be contrasted with similar elements.  Depicting  light striking one object requires a visible difference in intensity, temperature or both.  In the case of this sketch, the foreground field is also catching light but painting it in the same manner as the middle field would have left this very large simply painted shape with very little visual interest.  By “pushing” the color – increasing its intensity –without cooling the color – changing its temperature.  The contrast in intensities between the fore and middle ground convinces the eye that, while both are lit, the middle ground is catching a great deal of intense sunlight.  At the same time, the foreground stays warm enough and light enough so that it has visual interest and so the addition of fence post shadows in the foreground left are visually credible as well.
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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February 4, 2012 - Front Yard Hawthorn Tree, February Afternoon

Feb 4, 2012 – Hawthorn Tree in the Front Yard – February Afternoon.  A very chilly and still snowless afternoon in February.   We have two of these Hawthorns in our front yard. I find nearly all tree varieties beautiful in one way or another, but these have a very unique, wildly twisted and curvy trunk structure with thick canopy branches that transition rather abruptly into thick tangles of small twigs at the end.  During the parts of the year when the trees are leafless, they cast wonderful shadow patterns on the ground.  On this day, the three main trunks of this tree and the angle of the sun combined to cast essentially one single, stark shadow on the ground.  Given that it has been a very mild winter and  there is still no snow on the ground, I noticed that the grass is still somewhat green and tried to catch the mostly backlit trunks and the dark green shadow they cast.  The color palette of this painting are the muted colors of winter again – with ultramarine and cobalt blues along with raw and burnt sienna dominating.

I painted this sitting on our front porch.  Since it was a very chilly day, I had to dash inside a couple of times to warm my hands.  It is painted in an old Liberte’ watercolor sketchbook.  From the looks of it, I last painted in it in 2009.   I’ve had this sketchbook for years – the sketch on the first page is dated 6/5/94.   Every time I use it, I find the working character a little odd and artificial.  Now I know why – inside the front cover is a description of the sketchbook and the paper which explains that the paper is a combination of half cotton rag and half “man-made non-allergenic fiber” , 80lb weight and acid free and manufactured by D’Arches – the famous French paper-making company.  I don’t know if these books are still made but it’s not my favorite surface; I’m not likely to purchase another one.
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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