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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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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"Rose is Rose"

This painting was begun during a recent class as a demonstration of the wet-in-wet technique, sing a bouquet of various colored roses as the “model”.

To paint a realistic looking rose is a challenge, due to their intricate and tightly bunched petals.  It takes a great deal of studied observation and skill to realistically render this beautiful flower.

As an alternative to a realistic depiction, one can work to capture the character and impression of the rose a few with simple techniques, starting with a wet-in-wet application.

The wet-into-wet watercolor technique is really quite simple to do and imparts a loose, free-flowing base that allows the color to remain fresh.  At the same time, it is a technique that many find scary and intimidating, mostly due to the fear of losing control of the wash.  While some control is lost, in the form of lost and indistinct edges, by employing the “dry on wet” techn

This painting was begun by wetting the entire sheet with clear water and letting that stand for a few minutes.  This is so that the surface could dry a bit by both absorption – by the paper – as well as a little bit of evaporation.  It’s possible to tell when the surface is ready by looking across the paper – there should be a good sheen but no appearance of any standing water or puddles.

I chose not to draw the shapes of the roses with a pencil, but used a 1″ flat brush to ‘carve’ the shapes out of the wet paper.   As mentioned before,  the wet-into-wet technique will result in lost edges.  It is possible to maintain recognizable shapes, even with their soft edges, by mixing your colors with a high proportion of pigment on your palette, picking up the color with your brush, and then “blotting” excess water from the bristles of the brush. (see images below).

Use a high proportion of pigment in your color mixes when painting wet-into-wet

Remove excess water from the brush by pinching the edge of a paper towel on the bristles at the edge of the ferrule

These two steps will help maintain a little bit of that desired control.

The main shapes of the five roses were painted in and then the paper was allowed to dry.  I continued with the 1″ flat brush through the remainder of this painting, using its sharp edge to twist impressions of the curvy shaded areas that define the edges of the petals, and to add the stems and leaves below.   The painting was finished up with application of some loose washes in the background.

My 2011 Class Schedule is set – download a class schedule and registration form here.
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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"On The Point"

This watercolor painting depicts the gradual and subtle changes that occur as winter changes to spring.  During this time of the year the light is slowly becomes brighter and warmer, earth that has spent weeks under layers of snow begins to reappear and streams thaw and begin to visibly run at the surface again.

This scene is late in the day with bright slanting light and it’s associated long shadows.  Like many of my works, this watercolor painting emphasizes warm/cool contrast in its color scheme – perfect for depicting the everchanging balance of cold and warm weather.

 
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 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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"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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