One-Third School, Two-Thirds Sky

I’ve had so many things on my mind lately, and much of it related to the sky: blues, clouds, galaxies, light and dark matter, and accelerating expanses¹.

And the truth for me is I regularly feel absorbed into the beauty of what I see in nature, and what I imagine artists like David Bowie and master painters would be doing if they were alive in a space like I am today.

I’m lucky, nature continually talks to me and directs my ‘studies,’ sometimes even weaving in current events and art history. Since I’m not formally in school, but wish to be, I’m grateful for the daily explorations and eager to share this way of seeing and learning here.

And I’m routinely astonished how wild and un-tamable nature can literally directs us to look more closely at the constructions of the human-made world too. This is a delightful, ongoing surprise for me, when the things we’ve made are delightful and illuminating that is.

If you also carry the love of the bio-diversity and appreciate the teeming ecology of the Earth, and admire the cooler expanses of sky, and appreciate some things humans have made with love, care, and spirit like art, then I can only hope to translate the spirit of this experience into this digital space. Or at least point to the experience.

So, I’m sharing my daily lessons, and sometimes a view and context of my life lens here too. I don’t want to be just exploring alone, so hope maybe together we can find a way to illuminate the mysterious dynamics of our minds, our perception, our collective history, with all-encompassing nature.

And maybe, we can collectively find a way to create and manage in a wiser way moving forward. Wouldn’t that be great?

JMW Turner and shared semiquincentennials

Yesterday, I dropped my 12 year old at school. And I saw this sky. My phone does not do the experience justice but the composition directed me to an old memory of painter Joseph Mallord William Turner, so I tried to engage my son in conversation.

“Did you know there was this amazing artist, in the 1800s, who had a formula for how he did his paintings?” My son gave an eye rolling no.

“His canvases were usually one-third land (or sea) and two-thirds sky. With a horizon line down low in the rectangle of canvas. But to make that interesting, you really need an exceptional sky! Look what we have right now! It’s a Turner sky!”

My son was not impressed as I took a photo from the drop off loop. I knew the sight was spectacular, even calling me to see deeper, so I allowed myself the moment to explore.

I put up a quick “oh feck it, I’ll just put up draft-quality” on instagram, trying to impart the magic of this formula of composition. The shape taken by the sea and sky in the box of the canvas, in other words.

I needed to look up Turner’s full name and info, which yielded a happy surprise. We are currently celebrating the 250th anniversary of his birth. This too, a part of what we’re heading into, next year will be US’s semiquincentennial too.

It is said Turner’s deathbed words were, “The sun is God” which when you come right down to it, is perfect. The source of the earliest people being able to see daytime details and appreciate beauty to be able to paint was the sun. For a man who spent a lifetime trying to share his vision, the sun was his friend. Mine too.

Glorious! Just seeing, with an eye on the sky and a hand on a paint brush.

I hope you have a lovely look up high today and make something (anything) of the natural beauty you see.

Public Domain Works by JMW Turner Below. More can be learned by a simple search with discernment about who has posted the info. IE, don’t stop at AI overview, there’s so much more to see and know.

FOOTNOTES & SUB-SUBTEXT 😉

1. Our universe is measured to be not just expanding, but accelerating in its expansion. Read a basic overview here. ↩︎