– Bob Bahr reporting, Editor PleinAir Today –
Donald Neff grew up around dramatic clouds, but now he’s learned to catch them when he can.
Lead Image: “Squall Over San Jose,” by Donald Neff, 2016, oil on board, 12 x 16 in.
“Being close to the Pacific, we here in the San Francisco Bay Area rarely see wonder in the skies,” says Neff. “The exception to this is when there’s a storm. Such a day was today. I periodically do these ‘cloud practices’ just near my house during the winter. Having spent my adolescent years in East Texas, I am always enchanted by the beautiful skies and clouds when I go back to visit. Huge thunderheads, magnificent in their awesome power, would bring refreshing but short bursts of moisture during the summer months. Huge puffy cumulus clouds would fill the sky, rolling slowly past in no hurry to get anywhere. In the hot summer sun, an hour or two would show no evidence of the previous downpour.
“When the skies are beautiful here, I rush to do a painting.”
