Those of us on the Eastern Seaboard of the U.S. are either experiencing or bracing for the impact of Hurricane Irene, the outer bands of which are starting to drop heavy rain and whip up heavier winds here in Philadelphia as I write.
It put me in mind of the storm paintings of Russian (Crimean) painter Ivan Aivazovsky whose prolific oeuvre of marine paintings included many of roiling tempests and shipwrecks.
Many of these are from the WikiPaintings site, which usually has fairly large versions of the images. For more, see my previous post on Ivan Aivazovsky, which includes several other image resources.
Best viewed in rain gear.
We here on OakIsland North Carolina received our beating from Irene Friday and till noon today. We are more familiar with hurricanes living at the end of the Cape Fear and just hunker down and in my case paint and watch the weather reports. We did OK with only minimal damage. Hurricane force winds only occasionally with mostly tropical storm force winds. The town government closes our bridge off the island when winds reach 45 mph., so we are on our own.
Hope everything up your way turns out OK for you and yours. TimFitzgerald
Really powerful images, and very well painted.
Let me also take this opportunity to tell you how much I enjoy your blog.
There’s some serious drama in these paintings. I have only gotten through the first 250 or so.
Hope you stayed safe and dry Charley, I heard Philly got hit fairly hard. … Or at least I hope you have a REALLY BIG TOWEL!
Thanks, David. Didn’t even lose power, though we literally had the “big towel” mopping up the basement (grin).
The vigor of the wind and waves feel so violent and moving. They’re even more so from the shifting of the masts. Mr. Aivazovsky really draws me into the painting. It’s not just a painting anymore, but it feels like a real moment.