Tony Conner Artists Blog

Family takes  priority during family vacations, so I sketched and painted less than I might have.  Still, I was able to get some work done on our recent trip to Hilton Head.   Living in New England means that I have very little opportunity to see and paint trees from the southeast.   Trees are a favorite subject of mine and are often featured in my paintings.  It was pleasing to be able to see and paint trees from a new area.  Obviously, palm trees don’t grow in the forests of the northeast.  The two sketches below are of a palm located in the courtyard of the condo complex where we stayed for the week.  The pencil sketch captures the reality of the tree, while the watercolor sketch is a study in color, light and shade.

By the time I did this watercolor sketch, I had adjusted my color mixtures to be more representative of the colors of the plants and foliage in the Hilton Head area.   My initial works lacked a bit of authenticity since I was using colors – particularly greens – that are more like those found in New England.  The sketch below of a beach and salt marsh near where we stayed shows the difference.  The green areas in the fore and middle ground are tall marsh grasses.  As sketched, the green is more like the green of a grassy field in the northeast.  Marsh grasses in this are tend to be a somewhat more intense yellow green than as depicted.

Port Royal Sound marsh & sky - Hilton Head Island

On this particular morning, the sky was overcast.  I was pleased to find that my favorite combination of cerulean blue and cadmium red did work well to capture the look of the sky.

"Early November"

A depiction of the light of early November on the leafless and wizend tree.  Trees, particularly weathered old trees are always inspiring to me. This work is a cousin of several other of my recent works, all of which are the genesis of two sketches – one in pencil and one in watercolor – done on Boston Common in June of 2003.

This painting began, as many of my paintings do, while perusing old sketchbooks.    While paging through, I again came across the pencil sketch from my trip to Boston.  As usual for me, the rugged, weathered look of the trunk was attractive.  The sort of tripod form of the main branches as they grow up and away along with the sense of the main trunk twisting over itself also caught my eye.

Often, upon finding an inspiring sketch, I’ll begin composing a new painting. In this case, I decided to create another pencil sketch using this sketch as the model for the new drawing.

This was last November.  I am very attracted to the quality of light in November.  It is clear and bright and yet is also obviously fading.  The shadows cast on a sunny November day are sharp but seem to have a transparency that is different from other times of the year. In the painting, I wanted to capture the sense of November light as well as the character of this old tree.

The new pencil sketch is shown below.

In the sketch, I tried to create a new tree, but wanted to retain the sense of twisting trunk and the tripod form of the  main branches.   Once complete, the sketch remained near my easel for some time while I considered  it’s possibilities as a finished painting.  Obviously, the sketch was turned into a painting, the one featured on this post.

As I mentioned, this work is the cousin of several others.  One in particular , “Prairie Oak“, has had particular success in juried exhibits – it is shown below.

“Prairie Oak“

Interested in either of these paintings or any of my other works – contact me via email – mail@tonyconner.com; or by phone – 802-753-1156

My artists website - www.tonyconner.com

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Tony’s watercolor painting “Prairie Oak” will be exhibited as part of the Southern Vermont Arts Center 16th Annual Winter Members Exhibition.  The exhibit opens with a reception on Saturday, January 12 from 2:00 – 4:00pm, and continues through Tuesday, February 5, 2008.

“Prairie Oak”

“Prairie Oak” is a studio painting inspired by a work painted on location. The subject of the painting would seem to be the tree, whose shape dominates the pictoral space. Actually, the tree is the foil for the real subject with is the light that strikes portions of the trunk directly and reflects up into the branches snuggled up under the dense summer canopy. Much of the painting is executed with a very direct manner, laying in color and value in a single application. The foliage canopy especially was painted in this way. In contrast, the effect of reflected light on the trunk was created in a very methodical application of color layered in washes, one over the other. The result is a work rich in color and light which evoke the feeling of sitting under a large shady tree on a a summer day.

As I mentioned earlier, this painting was developed from a work painted on location. Despite the title – “Prairie Oak” – the genesis of the painting comes from a work painted in a location far from any prairie. “Common Old Man” is the original, on-location painting.

“Common Old Man”

“Common Old Man” is a painting of a weathered old tree on Boston Common – hard to be further from the prairie. At first glance, the relationship is not very evident. Certainly, the technique is not similar. Like most of my on location painting, this work is very direct and instinctive. Looking closely though it is possible to discern the basic structure of the “Prairie Oak”. Obviously, the setting of this painting is such that there would have been a lot of other things happening in the near and distant backgrounds. Those things were eliminated in this painting, giving the work a somewhat “prairie” feeling. That attitude was retained in the studio work.