Skywatch

On the plains of the Charente Maritime, silos are in abundance, their shapes and forms as variable as the agriculture which surrounds them. This silo, not far from the French town of Cozes, stands magnificent in its landscape; solid, formidable and unapologetic. Its substantial bulk seems rooted to the spot and its rudimentary and brutalist architectural form reflect its utilitarian function. The small adjoining cabin is dwarfed and one can only imagine the tiny form of the guardian that sits inside, awaiting the next tractor load of grain to shift its mass onto the weighing platform.

It is evening and the guardian has gone home. The skies are angry and the silo itself seems ready to confront the storm and stand solid to protect the contents of its gutsy interior. Only the small, corrugated grain elevator housing, perched on the top of the roof, appears to be at the mercy of the sky. Down on the road below, reflections from the tail lights of a passing car, just disappeared from view, dust the surface of the tarmac lane and the electricity and telegraph wires start to sway in the gathering winds.

Artist’s notes:
A dramatic sky to an artist is like a red rag to a bull, a challenge that must be met head on! The incredible ragged clouds in this scene begged to be painted and I could not refuse. As ever my love of all things silo as well as concrete structures got the better of me and the addition of a few poles and wires was the icing on the cake.

The colours of the dusk sky were strewn with greys, purples and red and the red tail lights reflected some of the scarlet colours lingering in the sky. The juxtapostion of a very uniform and structured object, the silo, against a torn, unruly and wildly unstructured sky really caught my imagination. The painting is in oil paint and was made using thing glazes of colour for transparency and depth, adding to the richness of the painting.