The Beauties of the beasts

"Beauty and Beast," 11 x 14 300 lb d'Arches cold press paper

Thunderstorms are schizophrenic, beauties and beasts.
Yesterday's storms,  filling our skies with dramatic clouds, also  brought so much hail damage to parts of Oklahoma.

One of yesterday's inspirations

But I never fail to go take photos of them, and then try to paint them. I've not done many recently, because in watercolor they're sometimes difficult to make them look alive and real.
Today I had to try, on the promise to myself that I'd not paint from a photo, but from an image in my head. I'm not trying to duplicate a photo. And I painted on very damp heavy paper. 
I'm not particularly happy with this entire painting, though I am pleased with the unintended "fuzziness" impression, but at least I attempted it, and learned.
Thunderheads are also beauties and beasts to try to paint.

Beauties and Beasts

"When Spring Arrives," watercolor,  8 x 10, 300 lb. d'Arches cold press paper

March on the  Great Plains...When spring arrives, it comes in spurts...sunny and warm one day, cloudy and chilly the next.
Eventually as the temps climb, bringing wind and moisture into the atmosphere, sure signs of spring will be thunderheads building on the horizons.
The beauties and beasts of spring...ever changing, always captivating, but fickle in promising spring showers, and sometimes dangerous with threats of violence.

Stratospheric Soaring

"Stratospheric Soaring," 9 x 12" watercolor

"Flying High," was today's World Watercolor Month, daily challenge prompt. For me, the challenge was also thinking and painting abstractly.

As a child of the Great Plains, to me the  most fascinating, abstract high flyers (because all are unique, changing constantly) are our clouds, especially the cumulonimbus thunderheads that soar into the stratosphere. Layers upon layers of towering colors and shapes challenge the senses, and our sense of understanding.

It would see that watercolor would be excellent for painting these, since they are essentially all moisture. But they're so abstract in shapes, they're difficult to make  look "real," abstractly.

I was reassured by a painting teacher one time who viewed one of my early works and said, "Somewhere on earth there's a sky like that."

At any rate, here it is, abstract towering over our straight line, earthbound existence. 140 lb. Fabriano Artistico cold press paper.

Storm's a-coming--Weekend watercolor

Storm's a-coming, 11 by 14 watercolor, 300# d'Arches

Oklahoma's skies and clouds bring constant drama to the Great Plains, adding life and imagination to every day.

(Inspired by this north of Edmond.)

 

Prairie skyscraper-watercolor

"Overhead," today's 9 x 12 watercolor, 140 3 Fabriano Artistico

Look up, way up.
Before the cold front hit, beautiful towering thunderheads towered over us. It's hard to show how much they dominate when you're close. But this is the first attempt. There will be another. And the photo from our front yard that inspired it.
Great Plains. Out here there's the sky. 

 

Out here there's the sky...West Texas

Other people faced long security lines during the weekend of heavy traffic. Not me, near Dickens, Texas, Republic of.

Memorial Day weekend trip to see my brother...the wide open spaces of West Texas...even when it's flat, it's not boring. "Out here there's the sky," Willa Cather.
We had thunderstorms, a cold front and Haboob sand storm, and more thunderheads. Love it.
"I will lift up mine eyes..."--Psalms 121.

West Texas thoughts and grandchildren

West Texas--wide open land  of the Llano Estacado in The Panhandle,
where the skies and people stretch your mind and heart.

Most people think of the Texas Panhandle as a place to drive through as quickly as possible, but I've grown to love the thinking time, the remoteness, the extreme weather. And in the past few years, there are even more important reasons.
My daughter Dallas Bell, her husband Todd and their three children Erin, Abby and Max now live outside Canyon, just south of Amarillo where Todd is a doctor. I was thinking about that today because this is my oldest granddaughter's 13th birthday...Erin Ann Bell.

Abby and Erin, right, on one of our trips to the bookstore.

I remember the night I got a phone call from Dallas, saying, "Congratulations, Granddad." I've been blessed to be around enough to really get to know her and her sister and brother.
Amarillo is a treasured destination now, even if for just a night or a day stop. We always get to do neat things, like eat ice cream, go to book stores, explore their property, go shopping.
This photo is a year and a half old, so I hope Erin will forgive me for posting it, but it captures her spirit and goodness and that of her sister Abby.