A layer of cloud covers the summer sky,
pleasant without menace.
Tantalisingly beautiful.
Serene by absence of noise.
Drawn by wind carriages.
The sun’s rays exposing momentary holes,
transformed into stilts of light.
Radiant.
Only to disappear then reappear.
All random.
The shadow makers continue their passage,
individually, collectively –
it matters not,
for they are there,
above.
Always above
without torment or whisper.
© JJ Evendon January 2016
Earlier this month, a peculiar ring appeared in the clouds over Warwickshire, England…
Roberto Porto captured this timelapse of a storm system over Roque del Conde, Tenerife.
Iñaki Bilbao is an artist from the Basque region of Europe who has been painting clouds for many years.
Cloud enthusiast, Marc De Carlo, has shared this video.
Tania Ritchie is Member Number 23,514 and one of the fantastic team of moderators for our CloudSpotter iPhone app. She is planning an informal get-together of CAS members based in the Sydney and Newcastle area of Australia. If you are nearby, why not come along to meet other members and be nerdy about the sky?
Date: Sunday 13 November, at 12 noon
Location: either in Newcastle (King Edward Park) or Sydney (Botanic Gardens), depending on interest
Food: Bring your own picnic
If you are interested in meeting up, let Tania know on the post that she has put up on our Cloud Forum: Register your interest in a NSW gathering
Scout & Boo repurpose sideboards and vintage furniture and have recently produced a range featuring clouds
“The constantly changing cloud formations in skies are less about a literal depiction of an observed phenomenon or place, but are a metaphor and a mirror of an interior landscape of individual consciousness and the human condition.”
Here’s what happens when you send a GoPro camera up into the atmosphere…
This is a compilation of clouds and atmospheric optics in time lapse sent to us by Roberto Porto.
Dr Val Perrin, member 3906, recently contacted us with news of the Skylight Garden at Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire.
An art exhibition entitled A. J. Aalders – Op Aarde / on Earth is currently running until 23rd October 2016 at the Appel Arts Centre in Amsterdam.
When you see a flat-looking rainbow, right down close to the ground, you are looking at a ‘lowbow’…
Take me high up to the stratosphere
to where the air is wonderfully clear.
The RMetS is delighted to be working together with the University of Reading on a Thames Water sponsored FutureLearn course, called “Come Rain or Shine”
Gary O Grimm, member number 16302, filmed clouds in real time moving during a thunder and lightning storm near Yellowstone National Park.
Multi-award winning Australian Pianist, Matthew Sheens, is set to release his latest Album Cloud Appreciation Day this month.
A poem entitled “Rain Clouds We All See” from Nick Houvras, member 7367,
Dan Ryan of the Eden Project, Cornwall, contacted us recently as he had been questioned about the amount of water in the Amazon Basin being greater above ground than below.
This is a china painting from J Pridgeon of clouds over the only promontory in the south of Kuwait
Society founder, Gavin Pretor-Pinney was recently interviewed for the “No Joe Schmo: Cool and crazy jobs – and how they got there” website. It gives an insight into the man behind the Cloud Appreciation Society.
Cloud of the Month for September is a storm with mood lighting…
Christina Ulander is a professional artist based in Devon, UK
Cumulus clouds on a warm day billow across the sky and eventually disperse, accompanied by birdsong
Elizabeth Busey is a Fine Art Printmaker from Bloomington, IN
“It’s the only bird that is known to intentionally enter into a cloud”
Roberto Porto is a veterinary surgeon, lucky enough to live in Canary Islands with plenty of time for Cloudspotting.
Kim and Paul Ingvar are photographers based in Leamington Spa.
Cloud Appreciation Society member, Ashley Gibbs, suggested this song by Johnnie Ray – the clip was recorded in 1956
Heiko Ruth stayed at home for his holiday this year and filmed the ephemeral beauty above…
August Cloud of the Month is the variety known as ‘lacunosus’…
Nicole D has suggested this track by Simon & Garfunkel. She says “I think this is a perfectly relaxed track to bounce my foot to as I sit on a bench and gaze at the sky”.
Society Member, Mike Rubin (no. 329) says about this gliding video –
“After having fun in a Lasham Gliding Society Discus near a shower cloud in the Newbury area I took a cloud climb 4km East of the town of Kingsclere. Cloudbase was about FL45 (4500 feet). I topped out at the airspace ceiling of FL65 (6500 feet) after climbing at about 6kts most of the way. Then after a long period inside a large cloud I emerged somewhere closer to Basingstoke, where I couldn’t resist a new video clip. Alas I forgot to turn off macro mode on my camera. Despite that, apart from one section of malfocussed video (which I edited out) it didn”t come out too badly. Phew! Easily my best cloud eye candy of the year so far in the UK. The town visible in the clip is Basingstoke, as I am headed back towards Lasham. I was still close to the 4-4500 foot cloudbase when I approach Lasham well after the video ends”.
Marilyn Murphy is an artist and Professor of Art at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN USA. She often uses clouds, wind and storms in her paintings and drawings.
According to the French composer, Claude Debussy, “‘Nuages’ renders the immutable aspect of the sky and the slow, solemn motion of the clouds, fading away in grey tones lightly tinged with white.”
Suggested by Erin Weaver (Member 37,688)
Chris Lauer occasionally shoots time-lapses of Los Angeles from his office while he works. Here is one of them – we’ll be posting more of them in the future.
Last week, we took part in a cloud-themed episode of the Colin McEnroe radio show on WNPR in Connecticut, US…
Saturday 9 July 2016 saw a great display over Dorset, England, of the new classification of cloud, known as ‘asperitas’…
This summer Kings College London will be hosting a series of connected performances exploring clouds and Utopian daydreams entitled The Naming Of Clouds. Clouds workers will be mysteriously creating and undoing patterns on the riverside terrace during the day for visitors to interact with. The next performances are on 6th August and 3rd September when spectators will be able to enter a Utopian daydream among the clouds.
The Naming Of Cloud is part of Kings College’s Paths To Utopia, a collection of new art works resulting from collaborations between artists, performers, architects, technologists and King’s College London academics to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Thomas More’s inspirational book Utopia. It was co-written and co-devised by Penny Newell and Philip Stainier.
To book tickets and for more information, please visit the the Kings College Website
The Naming Of Clouds – Paths To Utopia – Kings College London, Somerset House
The cloud photograph is part of a long-term project by Jeffrey Pflaum titled, “Scenes from The Big Cloud Picture Show.”
