Feb 3, 2012 - Silk Road Covered Bridge Bennington, Vermont

Silk Road Covered Bridge,  Bennington, VT.   Like most winter days in VT, it was “cloudy with breaks of sun” as the forecasters like to say.  When I sat down to paint, there was sun light hitting the left – south – side of the bridge and some of it was passing through the lattice structure and landing on the white door casing on the interior right. By the time the drawing was done, the sun was pretty much gone.  I left the sun & shadow pattern on the inside of the doorway never-the-less.   The finished sketch is about “9 x 12″ and done in a D’Arches 140lb CP watercolor paint book.

Winter colors dominate this sketch, just like they do in the previous two – Feb 1 & Feb 2, 2012.   It is a challenge to create enough variety in the grays and other low intensity earth colors to keep shapes from merging with one another too much.    The grays in this sketch are mixed from either ultramarine or cobalt blue with burnt sienna, raw sienna or Quinacridone burnt scarlet.  Using these five pigments in varying combinations creates a nice variety of color and value which gives the sketch the look of winter without being too somber.

This can’t really be described as a “wet-into-wet” watercolor painting, and yet the technique is used in a number of places – especially in creating the look of distant forest without much fuss.   Beyond the distant trees in the background, it is also used on the foreground right roadway, the sky and in laying in the initial rusty, violety (if there is such a word) red on the covered bridge itself.

If there truly are trends that take hold, become popular and then eventually give way in watercolor, I would have to say that ultra, macro realism is the current look and technique for watercolor painting.  All the big national and regional watercolor exhibits seem to have more every year.  Sometime that doesn’t leave much room for those of us still painting in “older”, less trendy styles and techniques.  I tend not be a follower, so will continue working in the style and with the techniques that produce what I like to describe as “representational impressionism” seen in most of my work.

In the classes that I teach, I have noticed my students having two very different reactions to the wet-into-wet watercolor technique.  They love the look it produces, but seem to feel nothing but frustration when trying it themselves.    By popular request and in response to both of these reactions,  I have put together a new class called Wet-in-Wet Watercolor and will be offering it for the first time in just a couple of weeks.  The class will teach the basics of the technique along with several skills needed to handle wet-into-wet watercolor without, or at least with less, frustration.  Not only will the class teach the skills but is guaranteed to loosen up the work of anyone using them.   More info on the Wet-in-Wet Watercolor class can be found by clicking here.

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With the cloud cover, it was impossible to find a nice light effect, but some orange glow in the sky at sunset made for a nice quick “skyscape” sketch.  When I say quick, I mean it.  The sky wash was laid in with blue gray for the clouds and mixture of cad orange and cad red dropped in at the horizon.  As the sky dried, I went in quickly with a thick was of mostly cobalt blue for the more distant mountainside.  The nearer mountain is a mixture of cobalt blue, Daniel Smith’s Quinacridone Burnt Scarlet and some raw sienna added quickly and thickly over the wet sky wash.  Although there is virtually no snow on the ground in reality, I created a very simple forground with a dark stream running through a partially snow covered landscape.

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Feb 1, 2012 - Near Sunderland VT

I always encourage students in my classes to liberally buy and use sketchbooks to develop their skills.  Yet since, last fall when both art and non-art related things started taking up my time, I’ve been ignoring my own sketchbooks.
Beginning yesterday, Feb 1, I have a new commitment to liberally buy and use sketchbooks – actually, I won’t need to buy any since I already have a drawer full of them – and to post at least one new sketch every day.   I’ll ask that you hold me to it by asking me when you don’t see a sketch posted on a particular day.

The first effort is this one, sketched in watercolor in a Kilimanjaro Originial Bright White Paint Book,  was done just off Sunderland Hill Road in Sunderland Vermont.   It’s been an unusually mild winter in Vermont so far. In the valleys and lower altitudes, there is hardly any snow on the ground.  This view looks northwest through an old forest.  Although it isn’t seen from this vantage point, there is a stream just on the other side of the large foreground trees.  Rather than snow showers, we were having rain showers, which left the puddles in the road.  The sky alternately cleared and clouded over as I painted so this is a designed composite of the rapidly changing 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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"Red Shed"

By popular demand!  Open for a second time tomorrow, Dec. 10th from 1 to 5pm.

Thanks to all who dropped by this past Saturday.  Jeanne and I enjoyed visiting with those who were able to make it.  For those of you who weren’t – and because we’ve had lots of requests, – you have another chance tomorrow from 1 to 5pm.   There’ll be more holiday punch and goodies, provided by Jeanne.

Like last week, please do drop in for a visit and to browse around.  I’ll have at least 38 framed paintings  on display, all being offered to friends, neighbors and collectors at special prices for this Holiday Open Studio.
Because I just took down the paintings from another exhibit, I now have 47  framed paintings on exhibit, along with unframed originals, prints, and my new offering of holiday and greeting cards.

House portraits make a very popular gift and there is still time to have one done in time for Christmas. I also offer Gift Certificates that can be used to purchase original paintings, prints, cards, classes and house portraits.

For “cyber-shoppers” my online Print Gallery and Portfolio are both open for browsing and the purchase of prints or original watercolor paintings.

My studio is located behind my house – 206 Crescent Blvd, Bennington, Vermont.  Click here for a Google map of the address.

Look forward to seeing you on the December 3rd!

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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Plein air artists Tony Conner & Elissa Gore painting in rainy conditions during the North Bennington Plein Air Competition, Sept. 8, 2011

The 2nd Annual North Bennington Plein Air Competition kicked off yesterday in the midst of heavy downpours of rain.    Managed to complete “North Bennington Train Yard” despite the rain.

The painting depicts a portion of one corner of the historic train station and the small yard that serves a local farm store and feed mill.

The event continues through the weekend with a number of public events scheduled.   See the event website for details – http://pleinair-northbennington.com/2011-schedule-of-events/

Weather on the first day of painting was a challenge. Very heavy rain most of the day had the artists doing their best to stay under some sort of cover and protect their paintings.

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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Open Studio Weekend – First up, this coming weekend is the Vermont Crafts Council Open Studio Weekend. You can visit my along with more than 230 other Vermont artists studios.  It is always a great weekend and I enjoy welcoming everyone who stops by.   This coming Saturday & Sunday, May 28th & 29th, 2011 – 10am to 5pm both days.  My address is 206 Crescent Blvd, Bennington, Vermont.  Click here for a google map.

Solo Exhibition – Izabella’s Eatery, Bennington, Vermont - A summer long exhibit of some of my recent work opens at Izabella’s Eatery in downtown Bennington. The Opening Reception will be held Sunday, June 5, 2011 from 1pm – 5pm.  Izabella’s is located at  351 Main Street, Bennington, Vermont. Click here for Google map and place page for Izabella’s

Cranford, New Jersey “Paint the Town” Plein Air Competition – For the second year, I’ll be participating in this juried plein air painting event & exhibit.  Twenty-eight seasoned plein air painters will decend on the quaint community of Cranford for 5 days of intense plein air painting followed by an Opening Reception, a 2-hour Quick Draw, and a Grand Exhibit.   All of this takes place June 7 – 12, 2011 in and around Cranford, New Jersey.  For info, directions etc. check out the Paint the Town Home Page.

Look forward to seeing you at one, two or all three events!  For more information, questions, directions, etc. contact me by: email 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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Saturday, April 30.  6pm – 10pm. Garden Arts Building, 47 Highland Ave, corner of Highland Ave and Elm Street, Manchester Vermont.

"100 Artists of New England", new book about New England Artists, artists colonies and artists continuing the heritage and traditions of art in New England

Honored to have been included in this book about the traditions of New England art and contemporary artists continuing in the footsteps of many who have practiced their craft here.

Available now at Borders, Barnes & Noble & online at Amazon.com.

 
Contact me if you have an interest any painting on the site.

Email me at tc@tonyconner.com or by phone at 802-375-5548.

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"Under The Canopy"

This painting began as a demo for my recent “Painting the Autumn Landscape” workshop, held last weekend.  On Sunday, the second day of the workshop, we decided to set up on the grounds of the historic Park-McCullough House in North Bennington, Vermont.  The grounds have many paintable scenes, but this one which included these three old trees attracted our attention.  The day was mostly cloudy with sunshine breaking through now and then.

The twisted, gnarled and rough trunks of older trees, deep shade with bounced light, and the filtered sunlight found under the branches of  tall trees are all attractions for me.  The composition was a bit difficult due to the separation of the trees.  For an artist, it is always appropriate to change visual reality.  In this case, the biggest compositional decision early on was where to place the trees in relation to each other. The decision was to leave the proportional spacing nearly as it really exists, mostly because I wanted to capture the foliage of the largest tree in the middle – specifically, the different areas of  that were back lit against the areas that were shaded, along with the large “U” shaped branch on the left side. I wanted un-obscured views into these areas so knew that I couldn’t move the left hand tree much closer to the middle tree.   Because of that, I decided to leave the right hand tree pretty much in place as well – actually, it has been moved a bit closer to the middle tree to keep it in the picture plane. This decision left two large,un-interestingly shaped background spaces on either side of the main tree.   To add interest to the areas, I made sure to provide activation  – graded washes in the deep background and the shapes of some shrubs along the low stone wall.

The overall effect works fairly well, capturing the look of tall, old trees in early autumn with their glowing leaf canopies, deep and luminous shade on their trunks and dark shadow on the ground underneath.

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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