Posts Tagged ‘winter’
The End of Winter
OK – this is my last winter painting for the year. This one, titled “Late Winter” is one of what I call my metaphoricalpaintings. The location is real, from White Creek, NY and was drawn in a sketchbook some years ago – I’m not sure how long ago since the sketch is not dated. But the work itself was created by drawing on my own consciousness. In this case, the conscious feeling that this winter seemed particularly long and dark. By the time March rolls around, nearly everyone in these parts – even those who are fans of the season – is ready for the end of winter. Generally, March is the time when fields begin to emerge from under the melting snow, creeks and streams begin to thaw and flow. The sky is also usually lighter and has fewer clouds while the sun brightens.
"Late Winter" - Watercolor landscape - 13" x 17"
The color scheme in this work carries the emotional content of the painting. The composition is very like the original pencil sketch, which is shown below. Since the sketch carried no color notes, I was able to pour in colors that seemed to fit the mood more than reality. Blue color dominates the painting as a metaphor on the end of winter “blues”. The light and warm sky as it appears in the top of the work and as reflected in the bit of stream is the growing optimism in the knowledge that the snow will disappear as spring arrives with warmth and is promise of summer.
The original sketch is shown below.
Pencil sketch for "Late Winter"
Interested in this painting or any of my other work – contact me via email – mail@tonyconner.com; or by phone – 802-753-1156
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New Work, Designing Winter
“Farm In Winter”
9″ x 12″
Don’t get the wrong impression, I am not pining for winter. Although I am not a winter sort of guy - I exist mostly indoors with a mug of hot tea not far away from December to April – there are many things that I find very paintable in the winter landscape. Anyone who checks this blog often will realize that painting is a process with me. The process begins with sketches. Usually, I start with pencil sketches that have been drawn at one time or another, often outdoors on location. In this case, I came across the sketch, below, from an older sketchbook. It usually my habit to note the date and time of the sketch, although this one had no such notations, so I am not sure where the scene really is or when I sketched it.
In any case, I liked the composition a good bit, without much change. The scene is suggestive of summer or fall, with lots of leaves on the trees. I decided to go straight to a color sketch, rather than to pencil thumbnails. One feature I wanted to emphasize in the final painting was the low, elongated left hand barn building. In drawing the contours of the buildings for the color sketch, I elongated this building even more and connected it to its mate. I wanted to suggest larger, complex farm building arrangement so added additional shapes that suggested additional buildings, sheds and/or wings. To emphasize the “horizontal-ness” of the building, I also made the sketch in an elongated, or panoramic format. The actual size of the sketch is 2 1/2″ x 6″.
Although winter was not on my mind as I began to work, the contours were suggesting a peaceful and calm winter day. The notion of calm led to the selection of green as the local color of the barn buildings, since both color and value contrast would need to be minimized in order to convey “peace”.
The color sketch is shown below.
Color sketch for “Farm in Winter”
2 1/2″ x 6″
As you can see, I went to a more conventional “landscape” format for the final painting, thinking that it would actually emphasize the shape of the focal point even more. I also brought the building forward and balanced their collective weight in the upper right, with the muddy road, a scrubby leftovers from fall in the lower left foreground.
