I like a place with big skies. The term is often used to describe areas of fl at land with little else to obscure the clouds overhead, such as fenland and plains. The sky can dominate in any place, however, where there are farreaching vistas on the coast, mountains, or moorland, or indeed, in the large field around the corner from my house.
When there is no obvious focal point and the land holds few features, the cloud formations in the sky begin to shout for attention. Most landscape paintings feature the sky in some aspect, but not always as a subject in its own right. This is a perfectly sound pursuit and many fine artists have studied and painted clouds in all conditions over the years, although I prefer to have some element of terrain to add a sense of scale and depth to a scene.
Your subject
My demonstration painting is of an extensive fi eld in Hertfordshire, looking slightly
