The colors of sunrise.

Do you ever get up early to watch the sunrise? I do. There are some mornings when I get up before the sun rises, and I go out onto my courtyard, build a small fire in my Chimenea, and just sit and observe the sunrise. It is amazing to see the colors in the sky and on the landscape as the daylight breaks. I see oranges and pinks and reds and purples on the horizon and in the clouds. The clouds look purple and orange and the sky on the horizon is a light blue with a hint of yellow on the edges. As you look up the sky is a darker blue and then higher up it appears brighter. As I look at the mountains, it’s a different story. Those afar in the distance have a strange look. They appear to be a light gray with a white wash over the gray. The ones closer appear much darker, but as the sun comes up, they lighten up and colors appear very quickly.

The blues of the sky are really unique on the horizon with a yellowish tint and then as you look above the clouds, the brighter blue is prominent. As the landscape and sky grow brighter I am reminded of the old debate of Ingres and Delacroix . Ingres believing that line was most important and Delacroix believing that color was more important in painting. I like to think of Paul Cezanne. It was he, I believe, who said that there are no lines in nature. I believe like Delacroix and Cezanne that color is most important in painting. Leonardo da Vinci said, “ Lines are not part of any quantity of an object’s surface, nor are they part of the air which surrounds the surface. The line has in itself neither matter nor substance and may rather be called an imaginary idea than a real object. Your shadows and lights should be blended without lines or borders in the manner of smoke losing itself in the air. Oh painter, do not surround your bodies with lines.” I am convinced that color defines objects, especially in the natural world. The colors are mixing and changing.

The moment the sun appears above the mountains and shines on you, everything changes so quickly. You can’t look directly at the sunrise any longer, you have to look to the sides. It is now that you really notice the colors in the trees and bushes. The various shades of greens and yellows. To me all of this highlights the difficulty of landscape painting. When painting outdoors, you must paint quickly because everything is changing so fast. Delacroix said “If you are incapable of painting a workmen falling from a roof during the time he is in the air, you are not capable of much. “ The idea being that landscape painters have to paint quickly.

The clouds and colors change constantly. All of this gives me a real sense for the concept of impermanence. This is the idea that nothing stays the same for more than an instant, everything is constantly changing. I also get a sense of the concept of interbeing. The idea that everything is connected. Nothing exists by itself. The colors blend into each other and the strength of one color is influenced by the reflection of another color. Watching the morning sunrise is quite an experience. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to see the myriad colors and how they interact with each other. The sunrise is a wonderous thing to behold.