Dawn

Acrylic

5 x 7 Stretched Canvas

Colors in the background melt into each other, from bright orange to peach then to mauve into an intense violet. As night turns to day the darkness in the sky is consumed by the brilliant shades of the fiery sun. Rising from behind the trees the sun casts deep saffron onto the clouds across the sky. The golden clouds blend into amber as they grow further and further away. Deep navy and ultramarine trees line the foreground, disguising the brightest part of the sunrise as it peaks over the horizon.

The sky is ablaze with fiery tendrils reaching for every cloud, a stormy night long gone as the sun begins to shine. Travelers hiding in the woods wake to beams of cascading light poking through the thick canopy of trees. Those early birds bask in the beautiful show of colors as the sun brings color back to the world.

The inspiration for this piece came from almost two years of living in Oklahoma and enjoying its magnificent sunrises and sunsets. If you are awake in the wee hours when the sun is just beginning to rise you may catch a spectacular view of a bright orange sun making its appearance. Sunsets here in Oklahoma often have a beautiful pink tint, but the sunrises are filled with the most intense shades of orange and red I have ever seen. I can’t take all the credit because while blending this background the orange seemed to melt into the most vibrant violet and I was inspired to create equally vibrant clouds.

These clouds went through many transformations, first white, once they were shades of purple, and even red made an appearance. If you look closely you may be able to see the layers of paint it took to get them just right. It took nearly a year of work and too many shades of orange to come to this beautiful end.