#2171 "Robinson Lake Thunderstorm Sunrise"

People had arrived in the cottage on Robinson Lake the previous evening. They were not up yet when I started to paint. The overnight thunderstorms were probably the most intense of the past week. The torrential rain shook my little tent. I do not remember much in the way of wind but apparently there were tornado warnings issued for the area. The wind near a tornado is nothing compared to the wind within a tornado. I had a great sleep and was up and ready to paint with the sun.

The best vista was down at the sand beach on Robinson Lake. The thunderstorms were still on the eastern horizon. I enlarged them in the painting to get a proper composition but otherwise the colours of the sunrise were exactly as I saw them. The sun was just clearing the anvil of the thunderstorm when I was finishing up. Some leaden altocumulus castellanus were sending shafts of virga toward the ground. The rain drops did not make it to the lake which remained a near perfect mirror aside from the wisps pf mist that drifted slowly around.

Large fish frequently rushed the shallows chasing down minnows for their breakfast.

Mark Patton gave me this canvas for a coffee since he knew I was getting low on surfaces to paint on. The outer edge of this particular canvas stretcher frame has been rounded. The concept is to relieve the strain and pressure on the canvas as it is pulled around to the side and back. This style is referred to as the euro stretcher and is designed to accommodate conservators and restorers in their efforts. From an artistic perspective the painting is more difficult to photograph right to the edges. Essentially the image must be cropped so that the rounded edges are removed. I paint right to the outer edge and as a result tend to prefer the sharper edges on the canvas stretcher bars.

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