The sky’s the limit

Coming home from Puerto Rico, 6x4" watercolor

I’m lost in thoughts of the massacre in Colorado and a graveside memorial I’ll be attending in just a couple of hours. Words really are inadequate and sometimes inappropriate. I will not tell my nephew that although he’s lost his 91-year-old grandmother, there are people today whose feelings of loss are more acute.

Above is a little watercolor I did on my way back from a wedding in Puerto Rico. I’m not the first artist that noticed looking down at the clouds is indeed spectacular. In fact, I know that Georgia O’Keefe’s Sky Above Clouds paintings were probably the trigger that inspired me to paint this little scene. I know of one other living painter/sketcher who will attempt to capture anything, anywhere. Raynald Murphy is an artist in Montreal, Canada. Both of us have sketched passing scenes from the passenger seat of automobiles. Not crazy, just passionate.

What is a sketch but a moment's passion, searching for the truth. 

(Stephen Aitken)