Thunder on the Rapids

This painting was inspired by a hike in Thunder Bay on an overcast day when a storm was coming in. The sky felt heavy, and thunder was grumbling softly in the distance, which grew louder and more ominous as I approached the rapids. It was a pretty spot that I had reached, with water splashing over the rocks and trees all around, and the scene was sitting so nicely just behind the one centre tree featured in my painting. It was the atmosphere in that perfect setting that enchanted me, standing in a place so serene and quiet but for the sound of the thunder, with the possibility of the sky directly above me erupting into a big storm at any moment.

This painting for me is the combination of intensity and calm, the feeling of being in a place so isolated and subtle in its beauty, but overtaken by a dark cloud that brings with it a gloomy and foreboding atmosphere. I wanted to capture the energy and the mood of the scene without letting the painting become mucky and cheerless, so I used brighter, pastel-like colours, but with a deep and dominating French ultramarine blue over the entire landscape, instead of the grey you would see before a storm. With the colour schemes I chose, I also meant for it to have a glowing feel, when the clouds are coming in but the sunlight hasn’t yet gone, and the effect is a sort of charged looking light, ready to change at any moment and unleash the wrath of the heavens.