Many artists capture the atmosphere of the skies using a wide variety of techniques and styles.
The most obvious one for me is Van Gogh, I remember seeing his art as a child thinking it looked magical. It was this experience which drove me to be an artist, to create the same visceral uplifting experiences for others.
Another artist that continues to inspire me is David Hockney, his use of colour in his landscape work is truly fascinating. Never one to stand still, his ‘iPad paintings’ were progressive and his passion for drawing really shows here.
Looking for less obvious sky references, Agnes Pelton uses the desert as inspiration, noted for her use of clear crisp skies and colourful glowing effects in painting. She is known for her spiritual symbolism within painting, using celestial forms and recurring natural motifs.
Erin Hanson is a contemporary American painter that uses skies and the landscape as her inspiration.
“My goal is to capture the beauty of light during the golden hour and transform ordinary landscapes into extraordinary mosaics of colour and texture. I apply oil paints in thick, expressive brushstrokes laid side-by-side, without blending, in the style I coined Open Impressionism. My goal for each painting is to capture a moment in time so beautiful it makes you catch your breath when you see it. I want my paintings to speak to you again and again, drawing you in, making you part of the impressionist movement."
Skies take on a completely different character at night, that literally has a whole alternative universe to explore within its subject. I’ve recently discovered the artwork of Daren Thomas Magee, who uses the night’s skies to create beautifully simple prints. What surprised me is these artworks are digitally created, as they look like traditional prints.
James Abbott McNeil Whistler uses layered soft coloured tones, alongside picking out the sharp contrasted highlights is a beautiful way to capture skies, which can be challenging. Our skies are ever-changing and dynamic, often very abstract looking, and to be able to capture that atmosphere, a moment in time is a skill that takes practice and skill to master.
“As music is the poetry of sound, so is painting the poetry of sight, and the subject-matter has nothing to do with harmony of sound or of colour. Art should be independent of all clap-trap—should stand alone, and appeal to the artistic sense of eye or ear …. and that is why I insist on calling my works ‘arrangements’ and ‘harmonies.’”
I hope I’ve given you some inspiration on all the different ways to capture skies, using very different methods and ways to express the ever-changing skies around us.
Have you got a favourite ‘sky’ themed artwork? I’d love to see what inspires you!