Clouds In Art and Storytelling

René Magritte (Belgian, 1898-1967), daily bread, oil on canvas, 91.6 x 69.8 cm

“I like the clouds… the clouds that pass… there… there… the wonderful clouds!”

Charles Baudelaire, the stranger
Clouds painted by Edvard Munch
A sky in Florida

The water droplets in sea spray can have a big impact on the atmosphere by helping seed clouds – and they may form when bubbles violently collide underwater, New Scientist

“As a cloud crosses the sun, silence falls on London; and falls on the mind. Effort ceases. Time flaps on the mast. There we stop; there we stand. Rigid, the skeleton of habit alone upholds the human frame. Where there is nothing, Peter Walsh said to himself; feeling hollowed out, utterly empty within. Clarissa refused me, he thought. He stood there thinking, Clarissa refused me.”

Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway

Sliding in stealthily off the coast is a fat slab of cumulus, its belly warmed by the sun’s passing. Deep, dense and dark it is; the result of a northern cyclone. Ribs of waves usher it forward with frothy lips. It creeps low and bulges with volition. Gorging on stars and moonlight. It belches cool air.

Craig Silvey, Rhubarb

A typical European film opens with golden, sunlit clouds. Cut to even more splendid bouffant clouds. Cut again to yet more magnificent, rubescent clouds. A Hollywood film opens with golden, billowing clouds. In the second shot a 747 jumbo jet comes out of the clouds. In the third, it explodes.

favourite joke among film distributors, from Robert McKee in Story

German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer talked about the romantic notion of the general cosmic power. This cosmic power clashes with human existence. The clash frequently leads to personal tragedy.

Nicholas Roerich (1874 - 1947) La bataille des cieux, 1912 clouds
Nicholas Roerich (1874 – 1947) La bataille des cieux, 1912 clouds
The Airmail. N. C. Wyeth. 1938
The Airmail. N. C. Wyeth. 1938
Alexander Leydenfrost (1888-1961)
Alexander Leydenfrost (1888-1961)
Chinese poster for Spirited Away by Huang Hai
André Édouard Marty, French (1882-1974), for London Transport poster ‘Where Runs The River’ 1931
Johnny GRUELLE Raggedy Ann Stories, 1918
杜子春 Mariko Haru 1950. (Is that a body bag on the back of the witch’s broom?)
The Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Kay Nielsen, 1924, ‘The Story Of A Mother’
James Edward Hervey MacDonald (Canadian, 1873-1932) Sketch For The Lonely North c 1913
Charles Ephraim Burchfield American (1893-1967) Jaws of the World (1920)
Felix Vallotton
Akseli Gallen-Kallela. Clouds Above a Lake, 1904-1906
Emily Carr (Canadian, 1871 – 1945) Above the Gravel Pit 1937
Konrad Krzyzanowski (1872 – 1922) Clouds over Finland, 1908
Afterglow, July 8 1916, Charles Burchfield, American
Baffling Mysteries January 1952
Robert Kearfott, Del-Monte print ad, Pictorial Review, March 1919
MAP OF CLOUDS
MAP OF CLOUDS
Ragnar Ungern (Finnish) 1885-1955 ‘Iniö’
Maynard Dixon (January 24, 1875 – November 11, 1946) was an American artist whose body of work focused on the American West clouds
Maynard Dixon (January 24, 1875 – November 11, 1946) was an American artist whose body of work focused on the American West clouds
New Mexico Cloudscape by Eric Sloane 1971
All Around Me by Shirley Hughes illustration
All Around Me by Shirley Hughes illustration
Davis Meltzer (born 1930) illustration for National Geographic, Vol. 131, No. 1, January 1967
Davis Meltzer (born 1930) illustration for National Geographic, Vol. 131, No. 1, January 1967

Clouds and sky a Ladybird illustration by Robert Ayton

Arkhip Kuindzhi (1842-1910) Breakers on a Rainy Day 1890
One of Mario Logli's 'Flying Islands' 1980
One of Mario Logli’s ‘Flying Islands’ 1980

What if you could befriend a cloud?
What weather would you choose?
What if the weather matched your mood, whether you want it to or not?

Elizabeth Shippen Green Two children staring at clouds on a field
Elizabeth Shippen Green Two children staring at clouds on a field
Anne Anderson, Scottish illustrator
Art by Moses Lawrence Blumenthal, 1921
Art by Moses Lawrence Blumenthal, 1921
DE SCHAAPJES VAN BINUS (1943) Jo de Meester The War Cloud
DE SCHAAPJES VAN BINUS (1943) Jo de Meester The War Cloud
William Timlin (1892 - 1943) 1923 illustration for his own The Ship That Sailed To Mars
William Timlin (1892 – 1943) 1923 illustration for his own The Ship That Sailed To Mars
Four Celestial Angels, 1880-95 Frederick Stuart Church; 1842-1924
Four Celestial Angels, 1880-95 Frederick Stuart Church; 1842-1924
Frank Godwin - Book illustration for Lang’s Fairy Tales 1921 clouds
Frank Godwin – Book illustration for Lang’s Fairy Tales 1921
Ksenia Kareva - Tales of the Brothers Grimm golden cloud
Ksenia Kareva – Tales of the Brothers Grimm
Masury Versus Sky 1936 Arnold Wiltz

NOTABLE PICTURE BOOK CLOUDS

Janusz Stanny – The Snow Queen
Anton Lomaev – Puss in Boots
Eloise Wilkin clouds
Eloise Wilkin clouds

In the dead of winter of 1968 a newborn baby boy lay alone in a crib in an English Orphanage waiting for fate to decide what was to become of him. Who could have imagined that 12 months later he would be learning to walk through the bright red dirt of one of the most remote and inhospitable places on Earth; the Australian Outback. But this was just the beginning of his magical, gut wrenching and joyous journey to find himself and his place in the world. That little boy was me and this is my story.

Arthur Hughes - A Passing Cloud
Arthur Hughes – A Passing Cloud

Header painting: René Magritte (Belgian, 1898-1967), daily bread, oil on canvas, 91.6 x 69.8 cm

CONTEMPORARY FICTION SET IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND (2023)

On paper, things look fine. Sam Dennon recently inherited significant wealth from his uncle. As a respected architect, Sam spends his days thinking about the family needs and rich lives of his clients. But privately? Even his enduring love of amateur astronomy is on the wane. Sam has built a sustainable-architecture display home for himself but hasn’t yet moved into it, preferring to sleep in his cocoon of a campervan. Although they never announced it publicly, Sam’s wife and business partner ended their marriage years ago due to lack of intimacy, leaving Sam with the sense he is irreparably broken.

Now his beloved uncle has died. An intensifying fear manifests as health anxiety, with night terrors from a half-remembered early childhood event. To assuage the loneliness, Sam embarks on a Personal Happiness Project:

1. Get a pet dog

2. Find a friend. Just one. Not too intense.

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