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The inspiration for this painting, which is officially titled “Storm's a'coming,” is (drumroll) a storm. Specifically, one of those summer thunderstorms when it is sunny one minute and then the sky looks like this fourteen seconds later. I call this blog entry Pizza Storm because I was recently picking up a pizza and, when I got out of the car at the strip mall, I saw the King Kong of all menacing skies cracking its knuckles just above a MacDonald's. I snapped a quick pic, ran in to grab the pizza, and made it back to the car almost but not quite in time to remain unrained-upon.

Painting this allowed me to play with grays, which is not something I've often done. In fact, I can only think of two previous paintings where I made Payne's Gray, Ivory Black, and a mixing white the workhorse colors, and they were both snow scenes. I worked this painting from the top down and for the longest time it could have easily have been a stormy sea image instead of clouds. I put the trees in at the bottom and that helped to clarify the ocean or sky question. (Once I got them to resemble trees, that is. Linda, one of my painting pals, asked what they were, and I had to admit they looked more like a cat had ralphed on the border of the painting than anything Joyce Kilmer might have admired. So I did a little of this and a bit of that until the miracle happened and the semblance of trees was suddenly on canvas. It's what makes painting fun).

This painting inspires me to give a shout-out to Christaphora Robeers. She was my instructor when I first took up the brush and, unlike some teachers, has absolutely zero interest in making all of her students paint exactly the way she does. No, Christaphora is all about helping you become the painter you are. She honestly doesn't give a rat's butt what your style is or whether you know you're supposed to apply the paint with bristle end of the brush. Composition will get some attention but she's happy to allow you to break those “rules” when you're on a mission. What she really tries to knock into her student's heads is visual interest and dynamic tension. She'll wander around the studio joyously laughing. “Make sure your paintings have push-pull! Think! Where are your lightest lights and your darkest darks? Lost and found edges, that's what I'm talking about! Jeez, people, don't be so afraid to put a little paint on your brush!” And whether you are a detailed accuracy perfectionist or misshapen whimsy rule-breaker, if you are painting a teapot then it damn well better be grounded in location with a shadow because some rules apply no matter what the painting style. 

This painting doesn't address all of her instruction and it looks nothing like something she might have painted. But I did think hard about the lightest lights and the darkest darks, push-pull, and lost and found edges while I was painting it.  I like this painting, and hope you do to. I owe whatever merits anybody finds in it to Christophora. 

Best. Mentor. Ever.