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Afternoon Storm by Sam Askin

Living in North Queensland means a pretty spectacular monsoon season. October through to April is spotted with intense storms, amongst heavy falls and the odd cyclone. Townsville is also fairly flat territory, which means you can watch the storms build from a long way off. I was recently chatting about my favourite types of skies to paint with another artist, as it’s already well known I love a sunset and a beachscape. Without a doubt, it has to be a great cloudy sky. Sure, a blue sky can be different shades of blue, but painting a cloudy sky is the ultimate creative freedom. Sunlight can reflect off the clouds as it rises or sets in almost any colour you can imagine. The different colours never look out of place, and are always beautiful. I immediately went hunting for a reference picture and found a little gem of an approaching Sunday afternoon storm off my front porch, heading towards the setting sun. Oh my orange! How amazing the deep teal shades stand against the peach highlights, topped off with a bright sliver of sunlit white cloud peaking through the advancing front of the building storm. Beneath the clouds, the heavy and dark rain was a wall approaching us. My kids and I listened as the sound of the rain got closer, hitting more and more Colorbond roofs. There are going to be plenty more sundrenched, cloudy skies to come after the fun I had with this one!