SPRING SHOWER IN THE LOWER PASTURE

Unfortunately, a timelapse video was not created for this artwork.

Prints of this painting can be purchased here now: http://www.inprnt.com/gallery/jeremiahjolliff/

This is an Original Oil Painting executed en plein air by Fine Artist Jeremiah Jolliff

I was in the right place at the right time for this perfect composition to come together.  This rainshower lined up perfectly with the treeline.  These types of moments are indescribable and all the artist has to do is be out and about and open to the experience and things like this present themselves directly from nature and it is astounding.

In Carlson’s Guide to Landscape Painting John F. Carlson describes some interesting observations in regards to the sky and cloud.  “The ordinary white cumulus and stratus clouds of the summer day recede in color as follows: the whites and near-whites of clouds go back a trifle warmer and darker towards the horizon, while the ‘bases’ or actual shadow portions of clouds go back a trifle cooler and lighter towards the horizon.  The ‘blue’ of a blue sky, which comes under the head of light (and is probably ‘lighter than you think’), goes back from a resonant blue at the zenith, slightly lightening and warming (with a modicum of green) toward the still lighter and greener zone ( a modicum of yellow added), until it gradually assumes a milky, pale, yellowish green; descending then to a smokier and slightly darker warm gray-violet hue (a modicum of red added), until the horizon is reached.”

This rather long, scientific observation of the sky conditions and its subsequent application in painting will pay dividends once understood by the plein air painter.  Silent contemplation without easel and canvas will aid the outdoor painter in the acquisition of the finer points of Carlson’s comments.  Boiled down for memory: the brightness of clouds gets warmer and darker with distance, while the darks of clouds get cooler and lighter.  What makes things all the more confusing is that the ground elements in a landscape painting almost always get cooler and lighter with distance.