Stormy Days. Oil on canvas, 42″ x 26″.
In this medium size oil painting the storm approaches and the cyclists head home. Is this threatening weather, or a false alarm? The cloud fingers reach out to surround the cyclists. The riders go one way, the birds another; both fleeing the coming rain and wind. The beauty of the cloud forms and their suggested motion belies their dark potential.
This surreal composition contrasts lowering white clouds against a green grassy plain. At the same time it harmonizes earth and sky by echoing the curves of the cloud clusters in the road and shore line. The puffy white clouds cast dark shadows on the Earth. The billowy clouds turn wispy. The grass is dark in the shadows and light in the sun. The colorful cyclists cast dark images of themselves. The illusion of space is created by diminishing sizes and shifting color – the three cyclists get progressively smaller, as do the birds, while the clouds and grass become more blue as they recede.
Stylistically this painting alludes to the American paintings of the 1930’s and 40’s, specifically the Cleveland School of Painting – a now forgotten, but once notable school of American art.