Artist statement: The sky is the part of making a painting I enjoy most. The challenge of painting air never diminishes. When I began this work I started at the top and worked down until I felt it was time for the land to appear. I had no particular place in mind, nor was I looking at anything except the canvas. The area of trees and grass had to be very rich and active in order to stay in balance with the much larger area of sky. Sky colors in land and land colors in sky help hold the two areas together. I remember John Constable's oil sketches of clouds when I look at this painting and feel that though it reached its final form over several months it shares with Constable's sketches a feeling of spontaneity.
