#2951 "Smokey Monet Sunrise"

#2951 "Smokey Monet Sunrise" 
10 x 12 by 1/2 depth MDF panel (inches)
Started 9:00 am Sunday, June 8th, 2025

The barred owls actually woke me up before dawn. Multiple owls were carrying on quite a conversation. I eavesdropped in... even though I do not know "owl", I do give a hoot. 

The sun was just cresting above the Singleton forest. Crows were alerting the rest of nature about my movements around the home. A trumpeter swan flew low overhead and bugled a greeting. Bluebirds were starting their day of feeding their chicks. One Bluebird had already fledged out and was waiting for breakfast on a branch of the Shagbark Hickory. The Eastern phoebes were also busy. It was an idyllic start to a day, but the sky told the story of tragedy. 

I also needed a break from painting bird portraits. I decided to record the colour of the sun as seen through the smoke encircling the northern hemisphere. The Smoke Advisory had been officially ended, but it still influenced the colour of the sunrise. This view looks east at 5:52 am Sunday, June 8th, 2025. Perhaps the smoke was getting too much media coverage. Maybe it would go away if everyone stopped talking about it? 

Climate change has forever altered the Boreal forest. A carbon sink has been transformed into a big source. A combination of drought and insect infestations has transformed the coniferous trees into matchsticks loaded with flammable resins. A warming atmosphere is also hungry for more water vapour, further parching the landscape. The Boreal Forest Fire season used to run from April to October, but now it never stops. "Zombie fires" smoulder all winter, waiting for spring to begin anew. 

John Vaillant's fine book "Fire Weather" is actually a textbook on the science and sociological aspects of climate change disguised as an action tale about the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire. As I wrote in 2024, please read Chapter 20. Those pages summarize a couple of centuries of science and explain a crucial five lost decades of action due to corporate greed and political pandering for power and profit. "Fire Weather" is an important and factual read... worth reading twice or even three times. 

The year 2023, when "Fire Weather"  was first published, also set records for fires within the Boreal Forest. The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) monitors the locations and intensity of fires. CAMS also tracks emissions and forecasts the impacts of the resulting smoke on the atmosphere. The following graphs summarize the sad story of 2023. 

Sadly, the carbon emissions from 2025 are on track to at least match those of 2023. The following are some images of Canadian smoke around the world... there were too many to include. 

But now back to art...

Much has been written about "Impression, Sunrise" painted by Claude Monet in 1872. Most missed the point in the early days of coal and mankind opening Pandora's Box of carbon. That same sun can be witnessed in 2025 through the smoke generated from torching the Boreal Forest. Monet claimed that he hastily titled the painting due to his hazy painting style. 

"They asked me for a title for the catalogue, it couldn't really be taken for a view of Le Havre, and I said: 'Put Impression.'" Claude Monet 1872

In terms of "economic value", the painting was initially bought in 1874 for 800 francs and sold again in 1877 for a loss at a mere 210 francs. The value of 210 francs in France in 1880 equates to about $2000 USD in 2025. Monet's "Impression, Sunrise" is now estimated to be worth $250-350 million USD, but it will never come on the market... 

The term "Impressionism" had already been used for some time to describe the effect of paintings from the Barbizon School. The details of all of those facts will left for the art historians. I will focus on the science. 

The influence of smoke and fog on the scattering of light is distinctive. "Smog" is defined as a fog made heavier and darker by smoke and chemical fumes. The term was first used at a 1905 Congress when Dr. H. A. des Vœux, hon. treasurer of the Coal Smoke Abatement Society read a paper on 'Fog and Smoke'. 

"He said it required no science to see that there was something produced in great cities which was not found in the country, and that was smoky fog, or what was known as 'smog'."

These thoughts were all bouncing around in my mind while I painted, but they are secondary. The only thing I can do is try to remain positive and happy. It is easy to be perpetually angry, witnessing what greed and the human economy have done to Paradise Earth. Nature is not part of the equation or the artificial balance sheet of wealth. Simply, nature has no voice.

I also thought that "Monet" sounded a bit like "morning" so the title makes some sense for a sunrise painting. "Monet" also sounds like "money" but for me, art has nothing to do with the contrived, unnatural currency of the human economy. 

So I stay home, paint and look after the forests while surrounded by nature. Life remains good if I focus on the positive.

For this and much more art, click on Pixels or go straight to the Collections. Here is the new Wet Paint 2024 Collection. 

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick