Sketch of the Day, Feb. 11, 2012

Feb 11, 2012 - North Toward Mt Equinox From Carpenter Hill Road, BenningtonVermont

Looking North toward Mt. Equinox from Carpenter Hill Road, Bennington, VT.  Similar to my sketch from Feb. 10, this scene takes in near middle and far distance.   The most attractive thing about the scene on this particular morning was the light green-blue of the sky that was showing through the gray clouds.  The sky is often this color in the winter months – not sure why, but I always find it subtle and beautiful.  Also like my sketch from yesterday, I found the light/dark patterns  of the middle ground fields against the darker forested areas another attractive element.

I’ve often been asked about where I start, continue and end in a painting.  The answer is – “it depends” – I’ll start a painting where ever it seems right.  In the case of this sketch, I worked it in the fairly standard way – sky first, distant mountains next, middle ground next, and the small bit of foreground last.

The colors are pretty much my standard “winter palette” but with the addition of Thalo blue and lemon yellow to create the light turquoise of the clear sky.   The sketch is about 8” x 11” and was done in a Kilimanjaro Original Bright White Paintbook.
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, Feb. 8, 2012

Feb. 8, 2012 - Williams River Near Chester Vermont

Williams River Near Chester Vermont – There’s no snow cover in Bennington, but there is in this part of the state – a little bit anyway.   This sketch was done mid-afternoon and looks over a small portion of the Williams river.  Sunlight struck the fields in the background.  The riverbanks were mostly free of snow but also support a great many trees, weeds and other plants – all completely leafless at this time of the year.  The river was mostly looking dark in color since it was reflecting the dark mud banks.  This particular sketch is smaller than earlier ones in this series; about 4 ½ x 7 ½  . and completed in a Moleskine 5×8 watercolor sketch book.   Like the Aquabee Sketchbook which was used for the Feb. 6^th sketch, the Moleskine sketch book has a “slick” surface although it has more tooth than the Aquabee.  The similar surface results in pigment and water that sits on the top of the paper, rather than being absorbed in.  The advantage is that transparency is enhanced while wash control suffers somewhat.
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 – Feb. 7, 2012

Feb. 7, 2012 - West From West Carpenter Hill Road Bennington at Sunset

 

West from West Carpenter Hill Road, Bennington at Sunset.  The day was  heavily and oppressively overcast from morning until the middle of the afternoon.  As the clouds began to break, snow squalls broke out.  This view from one of the highest elevations in Bennington, looks west as the sun is decending to the horizon.  The broken clouds allowed the orange and peach colored sky to show through.  In the middle distance was a field which, at this time of the year, should be covered with snow.  Instead it is still the dull golden orange of late autumn.  Only the road cutting along, up and over the field was white with the snow from the recent squalls. Again, a winter landscape featuring the winter palette of ultramarine blue, cobalt blue, raw and burnt sienna.

 

 

 
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 – Feb 3, 2012

Feb 3, 2012 - Silk Road Bridge Bennington

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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