Week 17 - Episode 93 - Clouds in Art

Clouds have been depicted by artists all over the world, and not just in landscapes.

They are a wonderful device to allow things to vanish - and suddenly reappear, as the above fierce dragon.

They can be reflected in art, as in Anish Kapoor’s mesmerising Cloud Gate (which I can’t wait to see in real life).

They can mess with your head, as in so many works by Surrealist painter René Magritte.

Or you can dance around them, thanks to Andy Warhol’s Silver Clouds installation.

Today, look for art in which clouds play a major role.

Share your finds on Instagram or Twitter using the hashtag #kramerseye.

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Week 17 - Episode 92 - Blue Skies Boredom

Clear skies add little interest to a picture. That’s why landscape artists love clouds.

Hokusai scatters them around mount Fuji in his close-ups of the holy summit.

17th century Dutch landscape painter Ruysdael happily fills more than half of the canvas with them.

Ruysdael, View of Haarlem with Bleaching Grounds, 1665, Kunsthalle Zürich

And Georgia O’Keeffe turns it all around and positions us, the viewers, above the clouds, creating inverted cloudscapes.

Sky Above Clouds III, Georgia O’Keeffe, 1963

Today, take your inspiration from these and other artists to capture landscapes with clouds.

Look at landscape art and pay particular attention to the clouds. How much of the frame do they occupy? How essential are they to the success of the picture?

Then go cloud hunting - and use them to add rhythm, balance or interest to your landscapes.

Share your cloudscapes on Twitter or Instagram, using the hashtag #kramerseye.

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Week 17 - Episode 91 - Cloud Spotting

Do you know your culumonimbus from your lenticularis? Your cirrostratus from your stratocumbulus?

I didn’t think so - and neither did I, before I started researching clouds.

And it may sound rather complicated, but the better you can identify the clouds you see, the more fun it becomes to observe them.

Luke Howard (1772 - 1864), a British pharmacist, was the first to describe cloud forms using Latin terms such as cirrus, cumulus or stratus. The division of clouds into ten basic cloud forms is based on his publications. 

But you don’t need to learn all the Latin by heart; the International Cloud Atlas has a very handy cloud identification guide:

https://cloudatlas.wmo.int/cloud-identification-guide.html

Thanks to this guide I now know that my beloved ‘happy Summer day’ clouds are cumuli, and that continuous downpours are probably caused by nimbostrati.

Today, become a cloud spotter.

Look up, and try to you figure out what kind of clouds you see.

Which are your favourites? And why?

Share your identified clouds using the hashtag #kramerseye on Twitter or Instagram.

For more cloud appreciation check out this Ted Talk by Cloud Appreciation Society founder Gavin Pretor-Pinney:

https://www.ted.com/talks/gavin_pretor_pinney_cloudy_with_a_chance_of_joy

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Week 17 - Episode 90 - Clouds

If there’s one element of landscape that’s captured the imagination of artists all over the world, it’s clouds.

Those miraculous collections of tiny drops can elicit feelings of happiness, fear, joy or just simple contentedness. Especially when lying back in the grass and observing them on a gorgeous Summer’s day.

Clouds can be categorised of course, and you can spot the different kinds. But the most wonderful thing about them, to me, is that no two clouds are ever the same. They are all different, all wonderfully unique.

This week we will be looking at clouds in many different shapes and guises, but today, simply look up and enjoy the show.

Not a cloudy sky to be seen? Then simply dive into your own archives to dwell among your own earlier captured clouds.

Capture those miraculous clouds and share them using the hashtag #kramerseye on Twitter or Instagram.

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