CLOUDS REVISITED www.cecelialyden.com

Lately my "head has been in the clouds." Clouds make such beautiful, interesting paintings. Sunrises and sunsets are much more dramatic when there are clouds in the sky. And there have been so many cloud-filled days this summer and fall; it has been difficult to avoid them, when painting outdoors.

It is a challenge to paint shifting, moving clouds en plein aire. Not only are their shapes rapidly changing, but also the varying lights and shadows that their movement produces is difficult to capture. For those reasons, most of my paintings of clouds have been done in studio-all from photos I have taken. It helps not to have to deal with lights and darks changing throughout the painting, while attempting to see and record the different values and colors in the clouds themselves. I try to keep my brushwork loose in order to convey those fleeting and changing shapes. I also attempt to convey the sense of cloud movement across the sky.

The skies in the paintings above were in the states of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Florida, and Arizonia.