Abstracted Cloudscape #10

Here is #10, another that almost went into the trash earlier today.  I realized what part of the problem is when I'm having issues with placement and scale of the clouds, and that it has to do with the position of how I paint:  flat on the table.  I have two easels - a French-styled wooden easel for plein air painting, and a cheap-o studio tripod deal that I bought so many years ago I can't remember where or when.  There's no room to set up either of them in the living room where my studio is, so I've just been working flat.

I have observed that when I prop the painting up against the wall to compare it to the reference, there's almost always something that is off, despite my measurement efforts.  Obviously, the solution is to paint upright.  So, I ran down to the nearby Walmart, and got a $10 table easel that can hold canvases up to 12" high.  It is perfect for small paintings, and I came back and re-worked this painting so that I'm satisfied with it.

abstracted cloudscape #10 - cumulonimbus, resolving

12 x12 inches

Strathmore 500-series paper (blue)

This is another based on that magical time of day in the late afternoon, right before sunset.  Color starts to first hit the lower level clouds on the bottom, and the dense, lower-level cloud surfaces away from the sun are already in shadow.  A storm has come, left its payload of rain, and now absorbs back into the atmosphere from which it came, surrounded by its small, scattered accessory clouds.  The anvil of the thunderhead still retains its basic shape, but the abrupt edges now fade to windblown waveforms that melt into the sky.