By Laura Grimes
It’s raining and the sky is pretty much a solid dull gray. Gray upon gray. Rain upon rain. End upon end. But the sky doesn’t have to be that dull.
The Pantsless Brother must have seen something different out his window. He sent me this note:
I’m looking out at the sky over the water as the evening fades and all I see is Turner.
Could he have been thinking of this painting?
The Fighting Temeraire by J.M.W. Turner, 1839
Oil on canvas
National Gallery, London
That brilliant expanse of sunset sky is saying goodbye to a famous warship that’s seen its last good fight and being carted off on its last voyage to be broken up. Broad, colorful strokes know their bigness and strikingly evoke a sense of loss. The canvas gives room to all that the sky has to say.