Susan Tingay

“My Head in the Clouds”

Clouds are the dynamics of the living atmosphere, water vapour made visible by condensing to form droplets suspended above the Earth. The antecedent of rain, the essential of all life, of our world. Transient, ephemeral, rounded, linear, light, dark, delicate, foreboding, magnificent, and, for me as a landscape artist, inspiring.

An element that influences the subtle or strong emotion of the scene before me. Rafts of fleecy, white cumulus slowly passing, creating a mosaic of shadows on the ground; strands of cirrus at great heights where migratory birds use the wind for their incredible journeys; the gloom of a thick layer of stratus; the mist that cloaks the trees at dawn and leaves their spider webs sparkling; the power of giant cumulonimbus storm cloud approaching; rolling thunder and the crash and flash of lightning - the latent powers of clouds become manifest.

The wonder and beauty of clouds are this blend of form and function, tranquility and tumult, subtle colours of reflected light and darkness, dynamic and amorphous shapes, nourishing, life-giving, powerful and ever-changing.

It’s an artistic challenge to translate the sky-high dynamics of air and water vapour into paint, to capture the form and qualities of the passing pageant overhead into a static image that still conveys the magic and majesty.

My brush on the canvas, my head in the clouds…