Chasing Butterflies Under Midday Clouds

Clouds at dawn and dusk are wonderful sights to behold.   They often have spectacular color, contrast and limitless shapes, making them one of my favorites.  The wide open nature of the coastline allows a panoramic view, light that dances off watery ripples and reflections of atmospheric yellows, pinks and even pale greens.    As much as I love dawn and dusk, it is much more likely that my painting session takes place during the day.

Painting at mid-day is sometimes maligned because light at overhead angles can cast harshly on subjects; shadows are shorter and darker.   Photographers greatly prefer the softer light of early morning or late afternoon, along with the dramatic, long shadows.

On a beautiful Spring day however, large puffy clouds with the sun overhead are particularly beautiful.   I decided to let the sky predominate in this canvas while minimizing the amount of canvas devoted to the actual subject and terrain - those presumed victims of the unflattering light.

I grab my two inch wide brush with the extra long handle and roughed in some shapes I liked by painting the negative, or sky blue spaces around my clouds-to-be.   I was using a mixture of cerulean blue and white.   As I moved toward the horizon, I gradually added a little more white and a very small amount of red to give the feeling of atmosphere and distance.

Backdrop - Clouds at Midday

I start back up at the top to work on the body of the clouds.   The closest clouds - and the biggest - that were overhead were placed at the top of the canvas.  To my sky blue mixture, I add a little cobalt and cadmium red light, which resulted in the medium gray needed for the body of the clouds.  Clouds change so quickly!     By now the original reference clouds are long gone, but I've locked in the shapes and will stick with them to the end.   I continued to scale down the size of the underside of the clouds as I worked down the canvas, closest clouds to furthest - top to bottom.    I made this grey mixture slightly lighter and bluer to help these clouds recede.  Next, I mixed yellow ochre, white and cadmium red to apply on the "flat" underside of the clouds, a warm reflection of the earth below.  

The next part of the clouds is the reward, painting the lacy lit edges around them.   I couldn't see the top of the biggest cloud above.    I could only see its underside and all the bright edges.   I gave this big cloud its frilly edges of light, but feathered the lit edges toward the center of the cloud, and keeping the outside edges more defined.   I continued edging the clouds, smaller, less distinct, and bluer all the way to the horizon.

The view of the clouds that were further away was more like a cross section, or side view.   I could see the narrow underside of bluish grey, the wispy sides, and the sunlit tops.

Now that I had a canvas with a bright, wide open sky, I continue the theme of space looking up a flowery hillside.  
With a one inch bristle house painting brush, I roughed in the green grasses with cadmium green, cadmium yellow deep, lemon yellow.   I then used the same brush to pick up some raw sienna and yellow ochre for dry grassy reeds over the green.


A group of children with butterfly nets raced across the wildgrasses to the patch of clover seeking butterflies I didn't see.  This boy reminded me of the thin, graceful and intense athleticism of my own boys at that age.