Maxfield Parrish sunset
June 9th, 2006 ~ Just a slice of heavenWe got one of those surreal-looking combination of clouds and late afternoon light on Wednesday. Greg and I were driving home and as we drove, the perfect, roiling cumulus clouds and increasingly golden light started to pre-empt more and more of the conversation — we went from “Well, look at that” to “Wow” to “Do you believe this?”. I ran in and got the camera when we got home and we backtracked to the nearest clear vantage point, a farmer’s ripening wheatfield.
This is what you get sometimes in early summer, these magical compositions of light and air that come and go and sometimes leave you wondering if you just dreamt them. They make me think of Maxfield Parrish paintings of fabulous places where there’s nothing to do but dream. (This is the type of thing, if you don’t recall the name.)
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June 10th, 2006 at 2:08 pm
ahhhh… Maxfield Parrish… I LOVE his stuff. Have you ever read about how he got that luminosity to his paintings? Fascinating!
June 10th, 2006 at 9:12 pm
Grace, no lie, that’s an award winning photo.
Fabu.
June 11th, 2006 at 6:45 am
Well, Greg took the pictures, but I “helped” (”get out of the weeds. don’t get in to close. did you get that part over there?”). I’m sure even Ansel Adams needed help.
June 11th, 2006 at 6:46 am
s-p
I have a book about him, but I confess I’ve just looked at the pretty pictures and not read it. (grin)
So what’s the short story on how he did it?
June 12th, 2006 at 12:49 pm
I’ve always loved Maxfield Parrish, my grandmother did too. The sunset is beautiful.
June 12th, 2006 at 4:40 pm
Beautiful photo, Grace … er, Greg. Ah, flat country. When we moved from the DC suburbs to California’s Central Valley I thought the scenery would be kind of, you know, boring. But I hadn’t factored in the joys of Big Sky.
June 12th, 2006 at 4:43 pm
Beautiful photo, Grace … er, Greg. Ah, flat country. When we moved from the DC suburbs to California’s Central Valley I thought the scenery would be kind of, you know, boring. But I hadn’t factored in the joys of Big Sky.
June 13th, 2006 at 12:31 am
Oh, yeah… and VERY cool photo… I love sunset/sunrises.
Anyway, Maxfield did layers of color, so instead of a “true” color on the canvas, he would layer washes so that the washes created the color through luminescence on the canvas itself. Hence the “depth” you see. Pretty cool technique, obviously a master at it.