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| Summer Fire, Oil on Linen |
Last summer the Colorado skies weren’t their gorgeous and magnificent blue. Instead, they were gray, red, yellow and thick with smoke. There were intense fires across the state and it was a surreal environment. Friends were evacuated, hundreds and hundreds of homes were lost and lives forever changed, animals were moved and many died, rivers turned black from ash; it was devastating. But it seems, there is always a silver lining (easier said by me, who didn’t lose a thing); firefighters were celebrated, communities were strengthened, and the human spirit while tested, for the most part shone bright. Interesting conversations and brainstorms of water, population, and environment all surfaced in a tangible way. And the sunsets, the bittersweet sunsets, they were ever so stunning. My son, Alex, said one evening that the sun looked like a giant “cutie” (the mini oranges often in his lunchbox) hanging in the sky. The shades of ochre washed across the clouds of smoke, creating a luminous, almost Italianate effect across our earth. It was really quite beautiful. I love painting different skies. So here was a great opportunity to try to represent one I had never seen before. And, to try to capture beauty and devastation all at once on a canvas is a great challenge.
Prints available at Art for Conservation by Fine Print, Inc. Summer Fire Prints
Original -$525 (framed) C2Giglio@gmail.com