Sketch of the Day – Feb. 26, 2012

Feb. 26, 2012 - Neighbors House And Yard From Den Window

Neighbors House and Yard From Den Window. Quick sketch done looking out the den window. Sunny winter afternoon – strong sunlight and shadows. I used the more colorful palette as with recent sketches in this one. In several of the recent sketches, I’ve mentioned using cadmium red and cerulean blue. This combination is a personal favorite of mine. Mixed fairly equally, the combination produces a light gray, delicate in color, but – due to the heavy opacity of the cad red and the large, sedimentary pigments in cerulean blue – the mixture can be dense and and rather opaque. The combination is best used in light washes. The shadow area on the house is done with this combination. Note that the colors tend to separate in a fluid wash – this is one of the things I enjoy about this particular combination.

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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. 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. 17, 2012

Feb. 17, 2012 - LaClair Road Puddles, Shaftsbury, Vermont

LaClair Road Puddles, Shaftsbury, Vermont. This area of Shaftsbury, Vermont is one of my favorite places to paint – see the sketch from Feb. 13, which is part of this territory. I went there early on this morning to try to get a sketch done. This view looks east and includes a lonely stretch of dirt road that was very muddy from recent rain. The edges and shoulders of both sides of the road had standing puddles. From my vantage point, the puddles on the left were reflecting the dark colors from the trees and brush on that side of the road. On the right side, the puddles were reflecting the light sky and one puddle also had the reflection of one of the utility poles along that side of the road. Although for all of the sketches in this series one of my main goals is to develop the skill of capturing the feeling and effect of a scene very quickly- under an hour if possible – this one took almost twice that long.

 

 

 

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Sketch of the Day – Feb. 16, 2012

Feb. 16, 2012 - Mt. Anthony and Westward Morning Sky

Mt. Anthony and Westward Morning Sky. This quick sketch was done early this morning looking west out of my studio window. I spotted this sky coming together while out walking the dog a little before the sun had actually risen. Once back home, I picked up a pencil and sketched Mt. Anthony and the other land forms nearby. The sky was then washed in quickly by mingling cadmium red, cadmium yellow, permanent red and cobalt blue together in the sky with an effort to catch and maintain the shape of the violet blue clouds within a relatively watery mixture. The most fascinating thing about this very simple scene for me was that the warmth in the western sky made it appear as if the sun was actually setting at that time of the day. The sketch is about 6” x 9” and was done in a Montval Watercolor Field Sketch book.
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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.
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Sketch of the Day – Feb. 10, 2012

Beechwood Road, Looking South, Hoosick Falls NY. I’ve painted this location twice in the past – both times as autumn scenes. This time the scene also resembles late autumn even though it was actually painted in mid-February. There should be lots of snow on the ground, covering these farm fields but, as I have reported in earlier posts, it has been unusually mild and snowless all winter long.

I found this scene both dramatic and simple, with clear sky, bright sunlight and large expanses of field and woods. In one way, this was a watercolor painters dream scene, with all the elements laid out in large, simple shapes, and a nice balance of warm and cool hues.

My aim was to transfer the simplicity to paper. I tried to emphasize the large shapes and warm/cool contrasts with simple, flat and hard-edged washes.

The warm burnt orange of the fields was pushed in both the foreground and distant fields. The actual local color was more in line with the color seen in the left part of the middle field. Why do that? Catching light on the middle field required that it be contrasted with similar elements. Depicting light striking one object requires a visible difference in intensity, temperature or both. In the case of this sketch, the foreground field is also catching light but painting it in the same manner as the middle field would have left this very large simply painted shape with very little visual interest. By “pushing” the color – increasing its intensity –without cooling the color – changing its temperature. The contrast in intensities between the fore and middle ground convinces the eye that, while both are lit, the middle ground is catching a great deal of intense sunlight. At the same time, the foreground stays warm enough and light enough so that it has visual interest and so the addition of fence post shadows in the foreground left are visually credible as well.
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Feb. 10, 2012 Beechwood Road Looking South, Hoosick Falls NY

 

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.

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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.
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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.

 

 

 
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