I’m not a painter, but…

If there is ever a time that conspires to make me want to try my hand at applying daps of colour to canvas it is those moments when cloud and water meet as one “real time”, “wide screen”, colour-field painting.

All three photos (untouched by computer manipulation) were taken from the same spot this past week. The first two within five minutes of each other. And notice the slight difference in colour; a bit more red in the first.

Horizon

You can use the brush of a japanese monk
or a pencil stub from a race track.

As long as you draw the line a third
the way up from the bottom of the page,

the effect is the same: the world suddenly
divided into elemental realms.

A moment ago there was only a piece of paper
Now there is earth and sky, sky and sea.

You were sitting alone in a small room.
Now you are walking into the heat of a vast desert

or standing on the ledge of a winter beach
watching the light on the water, light in the air.

Billy Collins

Seemingly simple — i.e., no real skill needed as in detailing objects such as people, trees, buildings and birds — the more one observes this supposedly simple scene, however, the more complex it becomes as it turns into a Zen koan of form defying articulation.

Traditional representational painting of objects seems like child’s play. I mean, anyone with a wee bit of academic training in perspective, choice of pencil or brush, photographic copying and life-drawing classes can learn to render something solid.

The magic and trickery of capturing the movement of cloud over water is that they are “ill-defined” with no anchor point except, perhaps, a tiny cloud or faint outline of a distant hill.

So, go ahead like Billy Collins suggests and draw a line a third of the way up from the bottom of the page. It’s a good start in exercising your imagination.

But it’ll take years of hanging out at the shoreline to truly master the art of capturing the un-capturable.

As for this last photo, where did the colour go? Try painting this assemblage of grays and nebulous light.