Under a Big Sky

"Study - Big Sky"
Oil on Panel
12 x 16"
2008

"The sky was as full of motion and change as the desert beneath it was monotonous and still — and there was so much sky, more than at sea, more than anywhere else in the world. The plain was there, under one's feet, but what one saw when one looked about was that brilliant blue world of stinging air and moving cloud. Even the mountains were mere ant-hills under it. Elsewhere the sky is the roof of the world; but here the earth was the floor of the sky."

- Willa Cather

I love this quote because the words say so beautifully how small everything can seem under a western sky.

This painting is a small study I did from a relatively bad photo I took while I was out running one night this summer. This photo doesn't do the painting much justice, but you get the idea. It's a typical Denver sunset - amazing for a few seconds before the colors fade. I'd eventually like to do a larger painting of this - probably a 30x40" or 36x48". The movement in the clouds just captivated me.