Sketch of the Day, Oct. 17, 2012

Silk Road Covered Bridge, Autumn Morning

This sketch is a view of the Silk Road Covered Bridge in Bennington, Vermont.  The morning was what you might call a “prototypical” autumn morning – clear, sunny, crisp but not cold.   I’ve sketched this bridge a number of times.  It was featured on a dreary winter morning in my Sketch of the Day for February 3rd of this year.

“Silk Road Bridge, Bennington” Sketch of the Day for Feb. 3, 2012 Click Image to see the full post

Unlike the Feb. sketch, this one features a lot of bright color around the bridge itself.  Appearances are deceiving since the color used on the bridge is nearly the same in both sketches.  In the February sketch, the grays surrounding the bridge, make the bridge color appear more intense.  In today’s sketch, the bridge color appears muted, due to the bright colors which surround it.

Obviously, the viewpoint is different from one sketch to the next.  The main source of attraction on today’s sketch was the bit of reflected yellow light from the sunlit foliage on the right side of the bridge.  The bright light and luminous shadows cast from the guardrail on the left side of  the bridge was also eye-catching.

The sketch was done in a Moleskine  8″ x 11″ Watercolor Notebook with my watercolor sketching kit.
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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Sketch of the Day – Oct 9, 2012

After months of absence, Sketch Of The Day returns!  This morning when I left to do some plein air painting, it was cloudy but looked as if the clouds might break.  Alas, no.  The weather got gradually cooler and more overcast.  By the time I set up to paint, the sun was completely gone and it was cooler.

“West River Near Rt100, East Jamaica, Vermont”

Instead of painting, I decided to do some watercolor sketches instead.  Since the day was cool and very overcast,  it was apparent that  drying times would be long so I did pencil outlines in two different sketchbooks, expecting to switch between the two to let drying occur.   “West River near Rt100, East Jamaica” (right) was done on hot press paper in a homemade sketchbook.    Because of the cool, cloudy conditions, the washes were put on thickly and directly to avoid having to glaze  or add to the shapes.  Hot press paper has an advantage when drying times are extended because it takes direct marks and relatively thick applications of paint very well while still retaining transparency.  Colors were typical late foliage season color with orange, yellow, brown, green, violet and blue appearing.

This scene was intriguing because of the leaning tree. I suspect it is leaning due to the effects of T.S. Irene last year which turned the West River into a very damaging torrent.  In fact, there was much evidence of the flooding all around me sitting on the south bank of the river including a dinner plate, an old plastic food storage container, extruded foam insulation board and a portion of what looked like the roof of  small porch.

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“End Of Season” – New Watercolor Painting

“End Of Season”

My latest landscape painting  began as a demonstration for my current “Landscape Painting in Watercolor” class. The class focuses specifically on the most efficient and effective techniques needed for painting watercolor landscapes.  Since the class is held indoors, we are working from photos.  The two reference photos  are shown below.  In this particular class, we combined images from the two photos while simplifying the subject and focusing on large shapes and in applying three basic kinds of watercolor washes – flat, graded & variegated.  By the end of class, the large foundation washes had been applied. I finished the painting in my studio principally by adding the touches of value, color and especially the textures needed to depict that time in autumn when the fields have been harvested, the leaves are gone and frost has removed the life and color from any remaining vegetation.

The reference photos are from scenes that are near but across the road from each other.  The sweeping, quiet rhythm of the fields from the left photo was attractive to me but I felt it needed more focus.  Adding the farm buildings and road from the right photo added the point of focus needed.

As is my tendency, the color in the finished painting has been enhanced with additional “chroma” or intensity and the field shapes along with the road enhance the feeling f movement.  I’m attracted to both the rhythm and contrast of open fields – both cultivated and uncultivated.  As mentioned above, farm fields – after the harvest – and open fields in the time after frost have unique textures.  Suggesting these textures is a visual cue as to the season – despite the color that is more expressive than realistic.

The content of the current class, plus some additional information, will be offered again in “Watercolor – the Essential Techniques” on the weekend of November 6 & 7, 2010.

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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“Under the Canopy” – Plein Air Watercolor Painting

"Under The Canopy"

New watercolor painting – “Under The Canopy”. 14″ x 21″ Begun as a demo for my Painting the Autumn Landscape workshop this past weekend, finishing touches done in the studio. More about the painting and process here –
http://tonyconner.com/2010/09/30/under-the-canopy-plein-air-watercolor-painting/

Plein Air Watercolor Sketches

Plein Air sketch - Cloud Shadows on the Green Mountains

Plein Air sketch - Hillside tree line

Plein Air sketch – cloudy sky and shadowed mountain top

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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Watercolor Sketch – Covered Bridge

"Bridge In Morning Light"

4″ x 9″

$99

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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"October Leftovers" – New Autumn Painting

“October Leftovers”

10″ x 14″

$425

Another painting of the autumn season. The look of moving water reflecting the colors of the environment around it has become a new inspiration for my work recently. Like “Late Autumn – White Creek“, this painting features a stream and its banks, along with the trunks of the trees near the ground.  This painting is a depiction of an autumn day in what I like to call “mid”-autumn – that time when leaves are beyond their peak and the branches of many trees are bare.  What leaves remain have faded a bit in color.  Despite the lack of leaves, the waning light of the sun means that there is darkness in the depths of the forests.  The color scheme for this work is a favorite of mine – the complementary color scheme of blue and orange.  In this work, orange and other warm colors dominate, giving the work an upbeat feeling even though this time of year is really a time portal to the darker days of winter.

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.

 

 

 

 

 

New Painting Depicting Autumn

“Late Autumn – White Creek“

11″ x 15″

Private Collection

The change of season from summer to fall to winter is rapid and dramatic from late September through late October.  I have several works that explore this theme currently underway.  This is the first of the works to be completed.  More to come.

 

New Autumn Landscape

“Golden Afternoon”

11″ x 15″

$425

 

This painting began as a way to experiment with a new color, Daniel Smith’s Quinacridone Deep Gold.  My palette doesn’t change much in that I generally stick with colors and brands that I am used to, this one caught my eye while browsing the Daniel Smith catalog.  Once the paint arrived, I had to use it!  The color out of the tube is an intense golden orange color – one that reminded me of the color one can experience standing in a Vermont hardwood forest at peak autumn color.  The light filtering through the golden leaves infuses the entire landscape with a magical golden color.   Looking for quick inspiration, I scanned my photo archives for an autumn landscape and found one that seemed to have just the correct light conditions.  With photo at the ready, a couple quick thumbnail sketches and a color sketch launched the work shown above.