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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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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"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.

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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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“Farmyard”

9″ x 13″

This is one of what I often describe as one of my “drive by” paintings.  Most of my paintings are the result of series of sketches and studies that culminate in a so-called finished painting.  Sketches completed on location are usually the starting point in this process, and I very much enjoy the “en plein air” painting experience.  Although I always have sketching gear with me when I am away from the studio, I don’t always have the time to stop and sketch.

That was the case with this work.  I spotted the scene as I was driving by, back in early December.  Late in the afternoon, with only a small amount of snow on the ground at the time,  I passed by this forlorn looking building surrounded by fields that looked as if they had not been tended in quite some time.   Along with the building was a single tree – sapling really – casting a long shadow across the yard.   My car flashed by as I did my best to commit the scene to memory.   Within a day or so, I had sketched out a composition on paper and begun to paint.  After several sessions of studio work – this painting emerged.

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.

"Woods Edge - Afternoon"

5″ x 7″

Private Collection

This small painting  begun as a quick sketch study for a larger watercolor work. The painting itself has a nice feel on its own and so became a more finished work.

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.