The Same Sky

I like looking up. Looking up at the sky and clouds offers an ideal escape from the suburban tangle of brick houses, wood fences, metal garage doors and rubber tires that all compete for my gaze when I cross the street. Sometimes an orange and purple sunset, with clouds highlighted in yellow, literally cause my jaw to drop. Sometimes, on a clear day the sky proudly displays well-defined fluffy clouds on a backdrop of brilliant blue. This is the kind of sky so joyful that only a child's drawing could do it justice. The only thing missing when I look up, is a haphazardly drawn smiley face on a yellow circle with rays vibrating out in all directions from a top corner of the page.

My first cloud painting was on the ceiling of my daughters' bathroom, which I painted in soon after they were born. While floating in their baths I wanted them to look up and be able to imagine clouds above. Painting clouds in my current body of work wasn't a strategic decision like the clouds on the ceiling of that bathroom. I noticed little bits of sky popping up in most of my paintings over the past couple of years. The pure enjoyment of creating cloudy textures, subtle variations in colours and working with interesting edges compelled me to do it again and again.

And so, I began spending more time looking up at the clouds and the sky for inspiration.. I spent car rides (while a passenger) looking up. I sat in the backyard while it was still winter, wrapped in blankets stolen from the couch, so I could sit on a frigid adirondack chair and just look up. One thing that struck me while I was looking up one day, was how no matter where I have been in the world, I see the sky that I see from home. It struck me how people from different continents who speak languages and live lives I will likely never know of, all share in the very same sky that I see. They see blue and clouds and on some nights see the moon and stars. I like to imagine that there are other people studying evocative clouds, discovering shapes, dreaming about the future and feeling part of something greater then myself. I imagine that we are all doing this together. 

At the King Heritage Centre and Museum, King City

Some of my Sky paintings on display.