#1543 "Sunrise Rainbow"

#1543 "Sunrise Rainbow"
8x10 inches oils on smooth panel

A strong thunderstorm was headed north-eastward across Lyndhurst just after a Sunday dawn in the fall of 2014. Singleton Lake was on the southern flank of that storm. 

A shower of small raindrops probably falling in advance of the forward flank downdraft, was enough to create a morning rainbow. The sunrise light on my back was refracted and reflected internally in the nearly spherical, smaller rain drops, back to my eye. As the old sayings go... 

"Rainbow in the morning gives you fair warning".

The sun is in the east in the morning while the shower and associated rainbow were in the west. Since weather generally moves from west to east, the saying appropriately alerted the weather-wise that rain was approaching. 

There are many more sayings that originate from the days when people were more in tune with their environment. 

"Beware the bolts from north or west; In south or east the bolts be best." This saying reveals the same reasoning as the above. 

"Rainbow to windward, foul fall the day; Rainbow to leeward, rain runs away." If the wind is coming from the direction of the rainbow, the rain is heading toward you. Conversely, if the rainbow is in the opposite direction, it has passed you. 

I had planned to paint en plein air on the following Monday morning but although it was sunny, the wind chill was brutal. I painted inside in front of the wood stove. There would be no victory in freezing one's hands yet again. 

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Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick