The Full Story
Handmade Weather - Cloud Study
Clouds have long captivated my interest. They possess surface — mass, weight, the appearance of solidity — and yet can be passed straight through, offering nothing to hold onto. They block and filter light one moment, then dissolve to reveal it the next, constantly renegotiating their relationship with the sky and light around them. They are carried by wind, reshaped by weather, no cloud ever holds its form for long; they exist in a state of perpetual becoming, never fixed, always mid-transformation. It's this contradiction — something so visually substantial yet so physically insubstantial, so ever-present yet so impossible to touch — that makes clouds such a rich subject.
Process of this work
This cyanotype depicts a single cloud, suspended in a moment of its constant flux. Printed onto canvas and stretched over a wooden frame, the work sits deliberately between photograph and painting: the cyanotype chemistry has been applied by hand in loose, gestural strokes, with exposed brush marks left visible at the edges, revealing the process usually hidden behind the print. This painterly handling is unusual for cyanotype, a photographic technique dating to 1842, and pushes the medium toward something more hybrid and expressive.
As Gavin Pretor-Pinney writes, "Clouds are not something to moan about. They are, in fact, the most dynamic, evocative and poetic aspects of nature" — and it's this restless, ever-changing relationship between cloud and light that the work sets out to capture.
Details
Handmade Weather - Cloud Study
41.5cm x 30cm x 3cm
2025
Original artwork - edition 1 of 1
£115 (unframed plus shipping)
Please contact me to purchase
