Painted in Aug./Sept. 2025. 30”x24”.
Acrylic on stretched canvas. Price $720.00 Cdn. Unframed
Morning breaks on the Eastern slopes of the Rockies like a wave of fire when the sun is still below the horizon, but the early sunlight is bent towards red and orange by the atmosphere. High clouds that were dark and purple, suddenly burst aflame and take on the most spectacular reds, oranges and yellows. Once the sun rises above the horizon, the colours return to less vibrant hues, but for a short time the sky sings out.
My cousin Jean posted some spectacular photos of the morning clouds from her front porch. She was kind enough to let me use one of these as a reference for this painting. Although my paintings tend towards highly saturated colour, in this case the painting is surprisingly close to reality.
This painting may be one of my new favourites. I was worried about how to paint the ethereal nature of light on clouds, but by applying many layers of thin colour over and over (scumbling), I was able to achieve the effect I was looking for. Another thing I liked about this painting was that I flipped that traditional landscape on its head. The land and mountains are subdued and muted, while the sky dominates the painting both in colour, shape and proportion. Lastly, I chose a vertical orientation for the canvas because I wanted to emphasize the majestic nature of the clouds as they tower overhead.
This is also the only painting I’ve done that was purchased before I actually completed it. The purchaser asked to buy the painting while it was sitting on my easel wall half finished during the Art Studio Tour a few weeks back. I told him it wasn’t completed yet. He said he’d like to buy it once it was completed, but to “please don’t over-work it”. He picked it up today and was very happy with the results, so I guess I knew when “enough is enough”.
