“Trace in the sky the painter’s brush, the winds around you soon will rush." *

Trace in the Sky  © 2010 Katherine Kean
oil on linen  30 x 40"

This is my latest work in progress. I saw these storm clouds roiling in the sky above the local foothills. This painting is part of a new body of work dealing with natural atmospheric phenomenon, elements such as wind, rain, clouds, vapor, ash and so on. I’m especially interested in those elements in transition or having an effect on one another, such as volcanic steam coming up against a building rainstorm.

I feel like this particular interest began on a trip to Hawaii last fall. I was staying on the rainy side of the Big Island – that’s the opposite side as the tourist side - and I got to witness these daily weather developments and sudden changes. It was quite a contrast to the parched drought conditions of Southern California that summer. Tinder dry is how the media likes to describe it and indeed I did return home to wildfires. It was all pretty exciting.

This is a larger size canvas for me, it’s 30 x 40” – not huge but it does take a little longer than others and a certain kind of energy. This feels like it is finally getting close to completion – another couple of days should do it. I want to add a lot more emphasis to the lighter cloud areas with highlights that will emphasize the motion of the cloud formations. I find that kind of addition to detail is fun work once I get into the rhythm of it. The rest will get some glazing to saturate and deepen some of the darker areas that might benefit from a heavier feeling.

*I found a webpage with a whole collection of weather sayings along with explanations and the title of this post comes from one of them.