Joni Mitchell sang about them…
Rows and flows of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons every where
I’ve looked at clouds that way…
And yesterday in my watercolor class we painted them.
Clouds, clouds and more clouds.
Mix the perfect blue.
Too dark?
Add more water.
Too light?
Add more paint.
Can I achieve that perfect Carolina Blue for my sky?
Easier said than done, but very fun to keep trying.
(I certainly don’t want to be accused of a Duke blue sky!)
You paint clouds in water color by just leaving sections of your paper blank.
The white of the paper shows up as clouds.
Or another way is to wet wash with blue paint the entire sky
and then use a paper towel
(I learned that VIVA paper towels—
more like cloth than paper—
are superior to all others for this technique)
to blot away the paint and create your clouds.
If you are like me,
you learned about the various types of clouds
when you were in elementary school
and then more again later in various grades.
Cumulus and cirrus and stratus are the basic three I always remember,
but there are many, many more types of cloud classifications.
Did you know there are clouds with the nicknames
like UFO clouds or dog spot clouds?
It’s true.
Yes, there is science behind clouds,
but mostly I find myself overwhelmed by their beauty.
As a child I loved to lay on my back in the grass
and watch the clouds move slowly by,
finding animals and faces and other shapes
to delight and entertain me for long periods of time.
Very meditative really.
But I write today to share my latest discovery.
Did you know there is an official Cloud Appreciation Society?
It’s true
(and it has nothing to do with the internet Cloud—
though I am a fan of that Cloud, too!)
The Cloud Appreciation Society (CAS) has members all over the world
and anyone can join.
There is an annual membership fee,
but with that you get a cloud identifier wheel and an official badge
and a “cloud a day” email,
which is sometimes a cloud photo
and sometimes a cool piece of cloud science or trivia.
But mostly you get to be part of this world-wide group that loves to look
at the clouds.
Their “motto” is: Look up!
I had to join.
I really did.
Somehow I knew I would love this group
and be entranced by the cloud photos sent from around the world.
Don’t we all need a bit of beauty appearing in our inbox?
But if you are not a joiner
you can check them out on their website
https://cloudappreciationsociety.org
or on their Facebook page.
You can listen to the TED talk (you really, really need to listen to this!!)
by their founder Gavin Pretor-Pinney.
Or you can just go outside and fall in love with the clouds.
We live in an apartment on the 4th floor
with a lovely view of the distant mountains
and an even bigger view of the sky.
We have large windows and this wonderful balcony;
they offer an ever-changing cloudscape
from morning until night.
A volutus, or roll cloud, arrives ahead of a Cumulonimbus storm, spotted by Jim Hamann over Wapello County, Iowa, US.
So look out the window or go outside or sit on your balcony
or lie down in the grass
and look up.
As John Lubbock writes :
Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.
Look up.
It is amazing what you will see.
There’s a world of beauty right above our heads.
I love the different cloud formations especially storm clouds when they come rolling in.
Love this - clouds are so beautiful!