Sunrise or Sunset

#2516 "Singleton Dry Cold Front Sunset"

Sometimes it is a challenge to determine which rays of sunlight inspired a work of art. This explains why I typically include the answer in the name of the painting (like above). But there are ways to decipher the puzzle and this is the first in the series of Creative Scene Investigative methods that I employ. I will keep these brief. 

Colour is king. Humans can see maybe up to a million colours. Our brain takes that information and make sense out of it - perception. We perceive things automatically which is why many people thought my sunrise painting below was actually a sunset. They saw "red" and instinctively knew what that meant. 

#2534 "Sunrise on the Killbear Jumping Rocks"

Typically sunset are more colourful than sunrises. Dust and particles raised by stronger daytime winds and convective thermals created when the sun heats the earth, are efficient at scattering the shorter wavelengths of light out of the direct white beam originating from the sun. Removing the shorter blue, and green light leaves more orange and red to be viewed. Therefore it is automatic to think that red skies must be sunset skies. 

Vertically Integrated Smoke Plume July 20th, 2021

The skies have been especially colourful this past year. Forest fires over the Rockies and throughout the Boreal forest are now much more common - a result of climate change. This smoke has spread throughout eastern North America and is the reason my sunrise sky was remarkable for its hues of red and orange. Colourful skies are the new normal. 

Red skies have been painted before. Tom Thomson's skyscapes starting in the fall of 1915 were especially colourful. His friends in the Group of Seven thought he was taking too much artistic license and exaggerating those hues. Tom painted what he saw and in this case, he was seeing the volcanic dust and the aerosols from the eruption of Lassen Peak in California. Norwegian artist Edvard Munch painted what became known as "The Scream" in 1893 possibly remembering the colour of the skies after Krakatoa exploded a decade earlier in 1883-84.  Some refer to this as the scream of nature and I would not disagree. Nature is screaming now as well. 

There are other clues painted in those oils of Killbear that reveal the eastward looking view. Those will be revealed in time... 

Keep you paddle in the water and warmest regards... 

Phil the Forecaster Chadwick