Cumulus humilis (Cu hum) - Maree

“We all have 10,000 bad drawings in us. The sooner we get them out the better.” 

― Walt Stanchfield

W&N watercolour on Aqua 300gsm (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa)

While sketching this landscape, I was fascinated by the colour of the clouds. So as soon as I finished, I decided to research some clouds and came up with some interesting information.

Cumulus humilis (Cu hum) is the smallest non-ragged cloud and usually shows a light-grey shading underneath.

These are small fair-weather cumuliform clouds of limited convection that do not grow vertically and generally do not produce rain showers. Being at or near the beginning of the convective cloud’s daily life cycle, they lack the moderate vertical extent of cumulus mediocris. Consequently they are commonly classified as low clouds. Cumulus mediocris (Cu med) achieves moderate vertical development, has medium-grey shading underneath, and can produce scattered showers of light intensity.

Striking cloud colorations can be seen at many altitudes in the homosphere, which includes the troposphere, stratosphere, and mesophere. The first recorded colored cloud was seen by Nathan Ingleton in 1651, he wrote the event in his diary but the records were destroyed in 1666, in the Great Fire of London. The color of a cloud, as seen from Earth, tells much about what is going on inside the cloud.

Cloud droplets tend to scatter light efficiently, so that the intensity of the solar radiation decreases with depth into the gases. As a result, the cloud base can vary from a very light to very-dark-grey depending on the cloud’s thickness and how much light is being reflected or transmitted back to the observer. Thin clouds may look white or appear to have acquired the color of their environment (cloud iridescence).

Colors occur naturally in tropospheric clouds. Bluish-grey is the result of light scattering within the cloud. The bluish color is evidence that such scattering is being produced by rain-size droplets in the cloud. A cumulonimbus cloud that appears to have a greenish/bluish tint is a sign that it contains extremely high amounts of water; hail or rain.

Yellowish or brownish clouds may occur in the late spring through early fall months during forest fire season. The yellow color is due to the presence of pollutants in the smoke. Yellowish clouds, caused by the presence of nitrogen dioxide, are sometimes seen in urban areas with high air pollution levels. This info from Wiki

So, either our veldfire-season has started already or I’m living in a highly polluted area!

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No rain yet... - Maree

Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams. 

- Ashley Smith 

 Ink sketch and colour wash of a scene in Magaliesburg in my Moleskine Nature sketchbook

It's the first of October, heading for mid-summer here in South Africa and we've had no rain yet. Normally we have the winds in August clearing up old growth and our first spring rains early in September, but the wind has been blowing right through September, seemingly blowing the clouds back to whence they came from.

I'm having to water my garden every day, we've had some very high temperatures, but nothing seems to give life like even just a couple of millimetres of rain...

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Winter with Attitude

Today I will resist
pessimism and will conquer
the world with a smile,
with the positive attitude
of expecting always the best.
- Unknown

Have a good day
and a better one tomorrow!

W&N watercolour in Moleskine 200gsm sketch-book.

Winter in the Magaliesberg in South Africa is always spectacular, no half measures, crisp brilliant colours, the black charred veld from the recent veld fires contrasting sharply with rock and earth, creating a beauty of bright light and long shadows. I just love stopping on our travels through the North West Province to take in all this breath-taking beauty, trying to etch it deep into my mind for future recollection...

Harvest Moon and Autumnal Equinox II - Pam Johnson Brickell

Ofttimes, when I choose a subject or specimen to paint in my journal, the journey to the completed page takes many roads. Journal...... journey....
Hmmmmmm. Kind of goes hand in hand, don't you think?

I wanted to paint this unique Harvest Moon at a very special location. Spring Island immediately came to mind.
It's a 3000 acre nature preserve and residential community in the heart of the SC low country.

I'm very partial to this little piece of heaven on earth. I first visited the island, in 2007, as a visiting artist, teaching nature journaling. It is also where I studied to be a SC Master Naturalist. In 2009 I was fortunate to be invited back to conduct a second workshop. This past spring, I was asked and became the Spring Island Trust's Visiting Artists Program Coordinator. Pinch me, I think I'm in heaven :) We are entering the busy season for events - thus my blog postings aren't as numerous.  Somehow, as you age, the days get shorter and shorter :)

The above scene is the view from the 18th fairway. Rob and I were wondering if the clouds were going to break open enough to view the moon's rise. It was a lovely evening. The long shadows were sliding over the marsh grass. A sailboat was out on the Chechessee River heading toward Port Royal Sound. Clouds were turning this amazing shade of orange! And, flocks and flocks of White Ibis and quite a few Wood Storks flew over, heading to the Island's rookery.

As sunsets do, all the colors in the sky disappeared and boom, the Harvest Moon in all its glory peeked out! There were soooo many clouds moving quickly that I decided to do three vignettes - all in 8 minutes! 

Sketching was cut short as the sprinklers on the fairway were starting to cycle.  Fortunately, at that moment, not near us! We decided to move farther into the waste bunker - surely they wouldn't water there.....  I dropped my paint tin, upside     down,   in   the    sand.  Thank goodness, no sand collected in the colors I was using :)

I love it when Rob is with me on these outings.  He's the photographer in the family.  RIT graduate with a photo science degree - and he still remembers all the technical stuff!  Oh, to have half of his memory capacity :) At first, he felt a tad encumbered with my totally automatic camera. He'd much rather have his larger SLR and big lens, set on manual no less! He made it work and I've got some great reference shots to finish these sketches with.

At 7:45 p.m. the mosquitoes were about to fly away with us.  No bites, the bug spray was holding, but our arms were very busy swishing them away from our faces. An evening well spent. Journaling always makes me feel like I've been away on a vacation. Refreshed once again :)

I first learned this year's Harvest Moon and Autumnal Equinox were to coincide a couple of weeks ago. Wow! How special and what a treat for my Full Moon Series! Here are links to some very interesting information.

• Astronomer Ed Murphy from UVa discusses the Autumanl Equinox and how leap days came into being.

• EarthSky.Org

• Wikipedia - Equinox info

• Christian Science Monitor  article about moon on fall equinox

• Seasons & Dates for 2010

• Sun and Moon rise/set dates

October Clouds in a September Sky - Pam Johnson Brickell

I started this watercolor sketch a few days ago. The dark bottomed clouds, big and full. So full of Fall.

The last few nights, flocks of Canada Geese have been flying in. Such sweet music to my ears.

Labor Day Weekend, the lake is buzzing with activity. The last hurrah. Next week, lots of docks will be pulled out, cottages winterized. I'm glad we're heading south. I hate to see summer end.