Five o'clock shadows

12/27/11, 5:30 pm, looking northeast

Actually, they were closer to 5:30 pm shadows. These massive cumulus clouds hugged the horizon in the northeast against a deep blue-violet sky. The tension created by the angle and the dramatic shadows makes for a delightful cloudscape. These beauties dominated the sky on Tuesday evening, December 27th.

These magnificent clouds bring to mind a portion of William Wordsworth's The Prelude, Book First:


. . . these same scenes so bright, 

So beautiful, so majestic in themselves, 

Though yet the day was distant, did become 

Habitually dear, and all their forms 

And changeful colours by invisible links

Were fastened to the affections.*

Kurt Badt quotes this snippet of the poem in his book, John Constable's Clouds, to illustrate the idea of "second vision" in the work of Wordsworth and Constable. Second vision is the mature, "ultimate truth of nature [created] in the quiet of his own studio." This follows the first vision which the painter sketched en plein air on location. I'm all about the first vision myself.

*lines 606-611

Today dawned clear and cool

As I've been making a record of the weather over the path couple of months, I've noticed that there are fewer clouds earlier in the day. Clouds seem to move in about 11 am and then build up over the afternoon. I think this has to do with the rising temperature during the daylight hours.


These little cumulus clouds were the the early arrivals at about 10 am in the east. They were blowing northeast on this gusty, clear and cool day. It is a very Fallish day with blue skies, cool temperatures (about 60 degrees F) and red, yellow and orange leaves swirling in the gusts.


I've recently found a wonderful book by Kurt Badt called John Constable's Clouds. Written in German, but translated by Stanley Godman and published in English in 1950, this book seems to reflect the fascination I feel for Constable's cloud studies. Kurt Badt was a German art historian born in 1890 in Berlin who died in 1973 of suicide while despondent. He was interested in the meaning of color in paintings and questioned deeply rooted principles of art history. This charming and insightful book will prove a good companion to my year of Constable.