The Pink Cloud

James and I are doing an art exchange, where we each give the other a painting to write about. You can find James’ post on his website.

For this post, I chose not to look anything up about the artist or the painting. What you will read below are my own original thoughts. I am not an art critic, so please don’t ascribe any academic importance to what follows.

---

It’s the greenspace I notice first. A bit ironic, for a painting named The Pink Cloud. The soft glow of evening light is illuminating the trees on the right. They’re painted in a bright green with specks of yellow. The undergrowth is enveloped in relative darkness, casting purple shadows on the ground. A tree, bearing what looks like red fruit has sprung up through the thickets, and next to it two taller trees, thin and upright, pierce the sky.

On the left, more green, sprinkled with orange and red. Flowers, I’ve decided. It’s springtime.

A peaceful landscape at sundown.

Just beyond the green that occupies the bottom of the frame there is water. The sea, perhaps. Or a large bay. Its steady approach to the horizon is interrupted by two headlands on either side, obscured in shadow. A ship approaches from the left, its silhouette casting a blue impression on the softly lit ocean. Who does it carry into the quiet of the night? Are they disturbers of the peace, or merely seeking its refuge after a long journey?

Above the earthly plain, a large cloud. An impressive presence for sure, but not threatening. The pink hues on the right blend into the blues and purples in the middle. On top of it all is a brilliant white crown. It has a neighbour, too; smaller, lacking in definition, but still colourful. It has drifted off the frame and off the artist’s view, just as the large pink cloud will do in a few minutes. It is suspended not just in air but in time, in a frame captured with a thousand masterful brushstrokes.

I find the brushstrokes fascinating. Like most impressionist paintings from the era, The Pink Cloud shows visible, tactile, and definitive stroke patterns that almost jump out of the canvas. It is like a collage, painstakingly put together. Each stroke has a purpose. Taken in isolation they are individual specks of paint, but together they make a brilliant explosion of colour out of an ordinary cloud on an ordinary day.

I admire this piece for the sense of peace it evokes. It must be wonderful to view the world through a painter’s eyes. Thank you, James, for choosing this painting for me.