And Then There Were Clouds

Trio of Clouds, c Sukie Curtis, 2010, 5x5 each, oil on wood

What can I say but that I love clouds? Unapologetically. 

After all, I am a certified member of the Cloud Appreciation Society. And I find clouds endlessly fascinating and entertaining in their variations of form, color, density, changeability. 

Sometimes I wish I could hold them from shifting shapes quite so fast, and yet that's part of the nature of clouds to be always changing, fleeting, transitory, impermanent, ephemeral. And thus, fun to watch!

(Did you know that word "ephemeral" is built of two Greek words--the preposition epi meaning "on" or "at," and the word (h)emera meaning "day"? So ephemeral means on a day, or fleeting, etc. That was one of my brightest, most exciting "aha" discoveries taking New Testament Greek in seminary thirty (gulp!) years ago.)

A few weeks ago on a random morning, I happened to look at the sky over our neighbors' house across the street and saw some great cloud formations, and I decided to paint them as quickly as I could. Fortunately I had three small (5x5") wood panels all primed and undercoated with a rosy tone, so I brought my paint, my brushes, solvent, and the three panels out to the small stoop in front of one of our doors. Spread some newspaper on the porch beside me, just in case, donned my apron and went to work. 

Quick work. You have to work very quickly if you're trying at all to paint what's before your eyes when it comes to clouds (or nearly any other weather-related or sunlight-related phenomenon in a place like Maine). 

Of course there comes a time when you are no longer painting the cloud itself, which has morphed through several new stages in the time it has taken you to mix a color of paint. But some concoction of the actual cloud as it was, the way it remains in your memory and imagination, and the actual cloud as it is now and is fast becoming (I will resist saying--well, apparently not!--"as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be..."--what a preposterous idea of changlessness and immutability.)

But I don't set out to paint exact likenesses when I paint anyway. If I were after that, I'd take a photograph, and even with photography there's lots of choosing going on to make up a photo--a kind of editing of subject even before the photo gets taken.

As a more experienced painter once said to me, "All paintings, no matter how representational they aim to be, are abstractions." Fictions, we might say.

Especially so if the painter in question is as much interested in her/his own response to what is seen and to the amazement, delight, elation (or, legitimately, sadness, longing, poignance) stirred up in the one seeing. 

Which reminds me of something I've read attributed to Alexander Calder: "My method of working? I begin with elation." To which I say, count me in.

PS. I had intended to sell the three cloud pieces as a trio, but I have since sold one (the one on the right) to someone who admired that one. The others are still available. And I plan to do more.

It's Official!

In today's mail I found a brown envelope sporting British stamps and marked "Printed Papers" and "Please do not bend". I couldn't for the life of me imagine what it was--my official membership certificate in the Cloud Appreciation Society! It took only three days to get here!

Rather diminutive in size, it is large on classiness (as you can see from the photo at left). The text reads: "We do hereby certify that Sukie Curtis was elected [!] as a member of this society on 5th June 2009 and will henceforth seek to persuade all who'll listen of the wonder and beauty of clouds."

I am member number 16, 078.

The accompanying new member letter from the Society's founder, Gavin Pretor-Pinney, shows considerable eloquence, wit, and charm.

"Enclosed you will find an official membership badge [smaller than a US Quarter] and a personalised membership certificate. The certificate displays your unique membership number, which should be quoted in all correspondence with the society and should be written on your forehead at any society gatherings.

"We hope that you will wear your badge with pride and display your certificate in a prominent place for all to see. No expense should be spared when it comes to the framing of this certificate.

"We hope that you will visit us at THE CLOUD APPRECIATION SOCIETY website soon. Until then, look up to what Aristophanes called 'the patron goddesses of idle fellows', marvel at their ephemeral beauty, and never foget to live life with your head in the clouds."

Now, don't you want to join, too?

P.S. If you go to the Society's website via the hyperlink above (the one in all caps), it should lead you to the Cloud Photo Gallery. Scroll down a bit until you see a row of small photos. The photo that I took and sent to them last week appears in the left-hand end of the row of recently submitted photos. It is what's called a "summertime halo" or, more scientifically, a circumhorizon arc.

Appreciating Clouds

Yesterday while Bekah and I were eating our lunch in the sun on our steps, I noticed this "rainbow cloud" above our neighbors' house (toward the west-southwest). Bekah ran inside to grab a camera and took several shots. 

The colors of the rainbow were brighter than they appear in this photo. I don't believe I've ever before seen a cloud bearing rainbow hues in quite this way. The cloud moved southward across the sky rather quickly, spreading out as it moved. But the colors never left it. As you can see in the photo, there were other clouds in the predominantly clear sky, all of them normal "white" ones. I suppose there must have been just the right form of moisture in or near this one cloud formation to create the rainbow.

Appropriately, first thing yesterday morning on the BBC's "World" radio program, and again in the afternoon on "The World" from WGBH Boston, I heard about the Cloud Appreciation Society in the United Kingdom. So I attempted to join up! Soon I hope I'll have a spiffy certificate to show for it.

I do enjoy and greatly appreciate clouds and their intriguing and ever-changing shapes and colors. At the same time, in light of the loss of the Air France Airbus jet over the Atlantic yesterday, I feel moved to remember that clouds are not just "pretty things".  Sadly, some clouds carry murderous weather conditions.