Somebody Hold That Cloud For Me

One of the first things I noticed when I moved to Colorado was that the sky seemed much bigger than it was back East. It's not that there are less houses around me than before; I live in a cul-de sac and there are houses surrounding us on all sides. There are about the same number of trees. I can only think it must be because the land is much flatter, although I don't notice tremendous hills when I'm back East (except Cataract Street. Awesomely fun to go 80 up and down that street, and it is aptly named. Or, it was until the cops had the DPW fill in all the roller-coaster dips in the street that made it fun. Boo. Thanks to my aunt for taking me and my sister down Cataract Street at a frightening speed in her sports car, when we were but kids. Whee!). It's a mystery.

As I may have mentioned before I have never seen clouds like I've seen them here, and today was a spectacular example. Brilliant blue sky, huge white clouds across the entire expanse, and an amazing wind that would have had Dorothy putting on her red sparkly shoes and grabbing up Toto. Sure, sure, blue sky, clouds, big deal, right? Except these were worthy of painting. Worthy of a slightly surreal Maxfield Parrish painting or an epic Howard Pyle illustration. If there was less wind. Any canvas of a decent size to represent would have become a kite in short order, even attached to an easel. What's a landscape painter with an itchy paintbrush to do? Ah, the digital camera. Perfect. I don't always carry it, but when I see clouds like I did today, I try to snap at least a few shots. Blow it up and print it out on decent paper and there's your reference.

So what did Parrish and Pyle do without digital cameras? I'm not sure, but the results are still awe-inspiring decades later. Just keep painting, just keep painting....