Sketch of the Day – Feb. 25, 2012

Feb. 25, 2012 - Logging Site at the End of Carpenter Hill Road, Pownal, Vermont

Logging Site, West Carpenter Hill Road, Pownal, Vermont. West Carpenter Hill Road winds its way along one ridgeline, down into a deep hollow and then back up onto a high ridge where it dead end’s at a point where there is a spectacular 180 degree view, east, south and west over the Green, Berkshire and Taconic Mountains. I ventured out this morning with the idea of getting a nice sketch of this view with the newly fallen, light snow on the fields. Instead, at the point where the road ends, I found that some timbering had occurred and the harvested trees were neatly stacked and waiting for transport. The topsides of the logs were dusted with snow. Early morning sunlight was catching part of the snow and leaving other in shade. Rather than getting the vista, I sketched the stacks of logs, and the subtle changes in the color of the shade and shadow on their snowy tops.
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Sketch of the Day – Feb. 24, 2012

Feb 24, 2012 - Farm On Middle Pownal Road, Pownal, Vermont

Farm on Middle Pownal Road, Pownal, Vermont. Seems that I’ve been visiting Pownal, VT a good bit recently. This small quick sketch was done looking at another farm in Pownal, this one along a dirt road known as Middle Pownal Road. Like my previous two sketches (Feb 22 & Feb 23), this one takes a minimal approach and puts more emphasis on the effect of light and overall design than it does on capturing reality. The color palette for this sketch is a return to the one from Feb 22 with cad red and thalo blue dominant and the addition of cerulean and raw sienna. Although this is a much less finished work than many others in this series, it’s simplicity brings focus to the main theme which is the bright, winter morning light striking the side of the barn. The sketch is built with all of the elements supporting that single theme – light struck trees, long shadows and snowy fields also capturing the bright sunlight.
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Sketch of the Day, Feb 23, 2012 – “Pownal Farm, Simplified”

Feb. 23, 2012 - Pownal Farm, Simplified

Pownal Farm, Simplified. In a continuation of the theme from yesterday’s sketch, this work was also condensed to simple shapes in the form of a vignette. Like yesterday, this sketch was done early on a clear, sunny morning. From my vantage point, the farm buildings were backlit and cast large, long shadows into the forground.

Unlike yesterday’s sketch, the colors in this one are more realistic grays and browns, with liberty taken in the placement of cool and warm temperature passages to create interest through contrast.

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Sketch of the Day – Feb. 22, 2012

Feb 22, 2012 - Winter Farm Scene, Pownal, Vermont

Winter Farm Scene, Pownal Vermont. This started out to be a more traditional sketch like “Marie Hill Farm, Andover Vermont” on Feb. 15, or Taraden Barn, North Bennington, Vermont on Feb 18, but a desire to get away from the winter palette that’s been mentioned so often in these posts lead to a different interpretation of this scene with a different palette of color. The light on this early morning was creating stark and bold shadows that were being cast across the road. That single element became the catalyst for thinking and creating this sketch in a much simplified way. In laying out the pencil layout, the farm buildings were simplified by paying more attention to their defining planes, and to whether a particular plane was in full light, in shade or perhaps catching a shadow. The idea of simplification also led directly to the notion that a vignette – or leaving large portions of the paper untouched – might be a way to emphasize the long, stark shadows. Working with the positive and negative space seemed a way to further enhance design over realism

The scene as it appeared on this sunny morning was very much in the manner of the other winter scenes I’ve created during the course of this series with grays, tans and browns dominating. Since this sketch became an exercise in simplification and design, the color palette was selected with simplicity in mind while also enhancing the overall theme. The brilliant light created deep blue shadows on the ground suggesting something other than the normal “winter blues”. It didn’t take long to decide to use thalo blue – a deep, dark, very cool and intense blue – for the shadows. In keeping with simplicity, a good complement to thalo blue was needed, so that there would be the capacity to mix some good darks and neutral grays. The choice for the complement was cadmium red light, a warm, slightly orange, red that works well to neutralize the intense and staining thalo blue. Along with these two, three other colors were included on the palette: cerulean blue – another cool, but light and very sedimentary blue, raw sienna – a trusty color from the “winter palette” and great for mixing light neutrals, and permanent rose – an somewhat intense cool red that, when mixed with cool blues, creates low intensity, dusky violets which are perfect for the shady side of a red barn.

The sketch developed rather quickly. The initial focus was on creating an acute “horizontalness” by essentially painting positive shapes from the left to the right border. This included the snow shadows at far left, the shaded side of the barn at upper left, distant mountain and dark foliage in the middle left, the “main” barn complex and silos in the middle right and the small dark piece of mountainside and lightstruck building to the right. At the same time, the horizontal sense was somewhat offset by tilting the large horizontal, positive shape slightly to the right.

It was a conscious decision to leave the few strong verticals – tree trunks and utility pole to the left and treetop in the middle right – unpainted, negative space, in order to create balance for the overall composition.

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Sketch of the Day, Feb. 21, 2012

Feb. 21, 2012 - Deep Woods Near Chester Vermont

Deep Woods Near Chester, Vermont. In traveling from one place to another and with a full schedule, it was difficult to find time for a sketch today. This scene presented itself so I pulled over and made a quick go of it.

I’ve always been attracted to sunlight filtering through the tree canopy and spilling onto snow pack. The contrast of deep gray shadows against the patches of light along with tree trunks displaying various conditions of light, shade and shadow is so appealing that I usually have difficulty not stopping everytime I see something like this.

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. 19, 2012

Feb. 19, 2012 - Tree Trunks in the "Y" Woods

Tree Trunks in the “Y” woods. Today is the second day of my Wet into Wet Watercolor workshop and rather than try to start another sketch during lunch, like yesterday, I did this work in the morning before leaving for the class. Our neighborhood has the great benefit of having a preserved stand of woods in its midst. Called the “Y” woods, for reasons that I don’t know, it is a great place to walk the dog, ride a trail bike, XC ski (when there is enough snow to do so) or just stroll through. It is home to all sorts of wild critters, from the mundane – rabbits, mice, squirrels, deer – to the somewhat exotic – bear, moose, fox, coyote and even, according to one neighbor, Canadian Lynx! It is common to hear the call of owls emanating from the woods at night. In fact, while out walking the dog just a couple nights ago, we both heard the call of a Great Horned Owl low and rumbling through the trees! This little scene presented itself near the edge of the woods as the morning sun caught the standing and fallen trees and cast gray-blue shadows.

For the first time in this series, I used Fabriano Aquarello paper fitted into a home-made sketch book. Being a slick paper, it works in a very similar way to the paper in the Moleskine Watercolor Sketchbook.

 

 

 

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Sketch of the Day, Feb. 18, 2012

Feb. 18, 2012 - Taraden Barn, North Bennington, Vermont

Taraden Barn, North Bennington, Vermont. I started this sketch during the lunch break of a weekend workshop – Wet into Wet Watercolor – which was being held at Taraden B & B, in North Bennington. This view out of one of the finished barns toward the entry of another is familiar to me and I have painted it several time before. Most recently it was painted last winter during another weekend workshop. This particular February day was un-typically sunny and snow-less – this whole winter has been sunny, snow-less and relatively warm.

Despite the lack of snow and the plentiful sun on this day, the winter palette – ultramarine and cobalt blues, raw and burnt sienna dominate this work as well. The green of the barn shingles is created mostly with cerulean blue with some raw sienna.

This quick sketch was done in the Canson Montval Watercolor Field Sketchbook.

For comparisons sake, I’ve also posted this sketch which was done just over a year ago, at another weekend watercolor workshop. The

Feb. 6, 2011 - watercolor demo for workshop of Taraden B & B, barn, North Bennington, Vermont

most notable difference between the two is probably the depiction of the weather conditions. In very stark contrast to the current winter, the winter of 2010- 2011 was very cold, snowy and gray. While the vantage point is the same in both works, this one focuses on the structure of the building and the deep snow cover piled on it.

This sketch was not done in a sketchbook, but on a piece of 140 lb. cold press, Kilimanjaro brand watercolor paper.
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Sketch of the Day – Feb. 15, 2012

Feb. 15, 2012 - Marie Hill Farm, Andover Vermont

Marie Hill Farm, Andover Vermont.  This farm sits on a hill along the north side of Vt Rt 11, between Londonderry and Chester, Vermont.   I travel along this route often and notice the farm everytime.  On this day, the scene struck me as being particularly “wintery” during a year when we’ve really not had much of a winter.

The sketch itself was done with very fluid washes applied quickly and directly.  The colors are from my four-part “winter palette” plus a little cerulean blue.

I did this sketch in a Canson Montvale Watercolor Field Sketchbook.  It’s the first time I’ve used this sketchbook for this series, and had forgotten how much I really like it for plein air sketching.  The paper is not all that absorbent, but has a soft, slightly textured surface which is terrific for flowing washes and direct work.
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. 9, 2012

Feb. 9, 2012 - Mid-winter Afternoon along the West River, Weston, Vermont

Mid Winter Afternoon along the West River, Weston, VT.   Done on a bright, cloudless winter afternoon, the bright sunlight created bright blue shadows on the snow, cast from these houses and structures along the river.   The West River is a slow moving river at this point and is actually frozen over. Depicting ice, specifically in a frozen lake or river is a difficult challenge. While the surface is reflective, the reflections are soft and muted.  At the same time the surface is generally much lighter than that of either standing or moving water.  Compare the ice covered river and reflections in the middle left of this sketch to the moving water depicted in my sketch of the Williams River on Feb. 8.

This sketch is about 9” x 12” and  was done in my D’Arches Watercolor Book.  Again, the colors are all of those I’ve mentioned before as being my “winter palette” – ultramarine & cobalt blue, burnt & raw sienna. For this sketch, I did add a significant amount of cerulean blue – the sky was done with a single light wash, slightly graded darker to lighter from the top to the horizon, and in the lightly shaded snow areas in the foreground and middle distance.  The deep greens of the pine and fur trees, I used Daniel Smith Quinacridone Deep Gold mixed with Ultramarine Blue.

Earlier I mentioned that the West River is a slow moving river in this part of the state. As many folks know,  hurricane Irene, which was actually a tropical storm by the time it hit Vermont, did a great deal of damage when it came through.  Although most of Weston escaped relatively well, the West River was a raging river during the storm.  This video on Youtube – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59qE3GK0sw4 – shows the river about ½ mile downstream from where I did this sketch.  There is a dam at that point and the video shows water pouring over the dam and flooding the historic Weston Playhouse which is on the village green in Weston.

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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