And Now You Get Clouds
I promised you the sky in my post about stones and sand from Egypt. Here it is, with rather a lot of clouds. These photographs close my notes on that journey and continue my informal masterclass with Mother Nature — above all in composition.
When I travel, I want to encounter new worlds in the broadest sense. A pharaoh’s burial chamber, a coral reef, a few stones on a beach and the space above the clouds can each change the way I look.
Photographing through an aircraft window has its limitations. Reflections and imperfect sharpness are part of these pictures. I chose them for their forms and moods, especially where they come close to something I am trying to express in painting.
Austria is small enough that, on a southbound flight, I have barely stretched my legs and settled into my seat before the Alps appear. With clear weather, their ridges and valleys offer more than enough to look at.
After the sea comes the desert. Monotonous? From up here, the dark ridges and pale channels seem to be conducting their own experiment in abstraction.
A few clouds later, the coast comes into view. The pleasure of looking mixes with anticipation: soon I will be down there, in the water.
This view from my window in Safaga belongs to the sky series too: early light over the sea, with the palms still dark.
Back We Go
Then we turn around and head home. The sea and coastline are below us again, but the journey already feels different.
Images from the previous days keep returning. A moment ago a fish seemed to pass before me; now it is an aircraft. On the ground it looked large and powerful. In this expanse it is a small dot drawing a line from A to B.
Even the clouds can make me feel that I am still under water. I catch myself finding creatures in their shapes.
And then the Alps return, with light catching the edges of the snow and leaving the valleys in shadow.
Captain Friedrich and his crew thank you for flying Dao-Air. We hope you enjoyed the view.
Extra: The Magic Sea
The mock announcement above introduced The Magic Sea, an opera imagined through painting. Nobody needed to worry about my singing: at this stage it was an opera without sound. Like the children’s book idea, it began as a way of playing with possibilities.
One of my most memorable experiences was listening to good musicians develop a piece together. A little strumming, a few suggested chords, then the bass joining in: something gradually took shape. In the following article I tried to make part of a similar process visible through my thoughts and pictures of the sea. The water was still quite cloudy. That was part of the interest.
Related articles: Back from Egypt Trip – Stones and Sands · The Valley of the Kings · The Magic Sea
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