More cloud reflections

Clouds and Sky

8x8 oil on canvas

Spy Pond Series #22

So you can say I'm a little obsessed with painting cloud reflections!  My eye can't stay away from them when I'm at Spy Pond.  They're a captivating mix of beautiful reality and interesting distortions from the wave action.  Also they're upside-down from the way they are in the sky and appear to be their own entities.  Makes me wonder what makes these cumulous clouds appear gray on their underside. According to Darryn Schneider at http://optics.kulgun.net, "Clouds can also look dark or gray. This can be caused a number of different ways. But it is also due to perception by our eyes. A light gray cloud on a bright white background will look much darker than the same cloud on a dark or black background, in which case it might look white and bright. A cloud can look dark or gray because it is partially transparent and the blue sky behind it can be seen through the cloud. This will happen in light wispy clouds with little water content, and more often in ice crystal clouds. Ice crystal clouds can spread out more as the ice crystals last longer once they move out of saturated air (air with 100% relative humidity) due to it taking longer for ice crystals to sublimate (change directly from ice to water vapor), than water drops to evaporate."  And I thought it was a shadow!

Somehow we're intrigued by clouds and probably most of us have spent time cloud watching.  Their whiteness does appear to intensify the blue of the sky-a wonderful illusion as far as I'm concerned.  

Spy Pond is full of boaters at this time of year so I need to shift from sky to water.  After all, it's all about the Pond.