"Beached"

The Manchester Arts Festival takes place this coming Saturday, July 24, 2010, 9am – 6pm.  The Festival features a variety of work in many different mediums, all by New England artists.  You’ll find – fine art, sculpture, textiles, pottery, jewelry, apparel & accessories, garden ornaments,  and photography.

Located on beautiful Cape Ann, Massachusetts, Manchester-by-the-Sea, is a  quintessential New England coast community.

I’ll be exhibiting 20 original watercolor paintings – including “Beached”, above – along with limited edition glicee’ prints.

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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"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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"Repair & Refit"

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.

"Manchester Draw"

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.

"East Gloucester Rental"

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.

"Ocean Lawn South"

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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"White Boat, Red Boat"

Arts Fest Beverly takes place tomorrow, Saturday, June 19, 2010 from 10am – 4pm on Cabot Street in Beverly Massachusetts.  Over 100 artists and crafters, including myself, will be offering a range of unique items.

“White Boat, Red Boat” is one of the 18 original paintings I’ll be exhibiting, along with limited edition gliclee’ prints and unframed originals as well.

See you on Cabot Street in Beverly tomorrow!

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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"Glass On Glass"

What, then, to do when the usual subjects are not inspiring me at the moment?  The solution generally is to do something different.  In this case placing a group of wine bottles in front of my studio’s picture window with the intention of painting some compositions.   This work “Glass on Glass” is the first painting completed.   Glass is difficult due to its combination of transparency and reflectivity.  In the case of this painting, I focused more on the transparency and worked on capturing the various value and color shapes created by the overlapping of the transparent bottles and the areas where the opaque labels blocked the transparency.  Shapes colors and values were all simplified and some realism was sacrificed  in favor of pattern and rhythm .

Another choice made in order to mix things up and get the creative and inspirational juices flowing was to work on a different surface.  In this case,  I painted on Arches 140lb hot press paper.  I generally use this paper for architectural illustration work as it has the advantage of being relatively correctable.   It’s press surface prevents the pigment from settling down into the paper fibers.  The effect is to enhance transparency – a perfect attribute for a subject such as glass.

This work will be framed and on display in my studio for Open Studio Weekend, May 29 & 30, 2010.

Below is a quick prep sketch done in a watercolor sketchbook and from a different point of view.

The bottle arrangement is still set up and another painting is underway – more to come.

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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"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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Having lived in Vermont for the past 20+ years has not made it easier for me to endure winter.  It is long, cold and dark. Worse, there is usually not a warm spring with gentle rain and bright flowers as a reward.   People from places that have warmer, or at least, milder winters ask how I get through.  The answer I think is in the fact that while the weather can be a challenge, the winter landscape is quite visually beautiful and exists in a unique serenity.   The sun can seem to be absent for days at a time when, suddenly, the clouds open, the sun shines and the snow cover changes from flat white to mottled white, grays, blue, violet and even warm hues of ochre and yellow.  It is at those time that trees and saplings cast their sharp shadows across the snow.  Such was the case when I created this small painting.  The sun appeared briefly after several days.

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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"Watering Cans"

This is a quick sketch of two of my wife’s watering cans done as a demo for a recent class.  The cans sit on a table top and were catching the bright late summer light.  The pattern of light and shadows caught the eye of one of the students  so we used it as the subject for the day.   The color scheme is nearly mono-chromatic, using a limited palette of cobalt and ultramarine blue, burnt sienna, raw sienna, and some quinacridone burnt scarlet.

It is large for a sketch, nearly filling a quarter sheet (11″ x 15″) paper.  The subject was sketched in 2B pencil on the paper first, large washes were placed on the cans first, the main shadow on the table surface was added next.  Once dry, shadows were added on the spout and side of the large can and on the underside of the handle on the small can.  The work was finished up with some glazes of blue and raw sienna on the cans to produce some 3 dimensional modeling and ambient light effects on the shaded side of the cans.

"Early November"

Vermont’s natural scenic beauty is enhanced each spring when the work of Vermont artists and craftspeople can be seen firsthand during Vermont’s 17th annual Open Studio Weekend May 23-24.

My studio will be open from 10am – 5pm both Saturday and Sunday, May 23 & 24.  I’m looking forward to again  welcoming visitors my studio, showing new works and discussing my work, materials, processes etc.

Open Studio Weekend is a statewide celebration of the visual arts and the creative process. Bennington County, Vermont is home to many fine artists and artisans including the other members of The Artisans of Southern Vermont. The other twenty-nine members of the group will also have their studios open this weekend.  The fine work represented by this group includes other paintings, jewelery, pottery, furniture, sculpture, and more.

Take the Artisans of Vermont Open Studio Driving Tour and be eligible to win a $150 gift certificate to the artist’s studio of your choice. Simply visit at least 8 of the 30 Artisans of Southern Vermont studios, get the artists signature and then leave the form at one of the open studio locations. Drawing to be held on June 15, 2009.  Open Studio Driving Tour map, instructions and “Studio Sleuth” form downloadable here.