Sometimes, it’s filled with billowing clusters of precipitation that reach staggering heights. Other times, it’s simply a curved expanse of baby blue, burnt orange, or some other radiant hue. It provides a backdrop for the sun, the moon, and whatever lies on the horizon, and at times is so beautiful, those who take the time to appreciate it fall into a reverie state.
The sky does that to people.
However, in this age in which technology has drawn man’s gaze downward to laptops, smartphones and video games, fewer people are looking up. The North Georgia Sky Painters are hoping to change that.
The name “Sky Painters” is more conventional than one might assume. Its members are not aerial daredevils who weave trails of smoke into puppy dogs and birthday wishes. Rather, they’re a group of eight artists who have banded together to capture on canvas the ethereal qualities of the sky.
Desperation was at the center of the maelstrom out of which the Sky Painters arose. In the spring of 2010, Carol Hobbs had scheduled an artist to do an exhibition at her church, but three weeks before the paintings were to debut, the artist cancelled, leaving Hobbs with empty walls.
The blank canvas allowed Hobbs to go in a new direction. She’d fallen in love with a painting of a “beautiful, slopped on sky” she’d seen at an auction, and called her friends who were painters to see what they’d do with the same theme.
“We got together on a Saturday in my husband’s office, set up our easels, and went to work. We fell in love with it, and decided to keep going,” Hobbs says.
Word about the Sky Painters spread throughout the region, and now the group has back-to-back showings all year. Their collection is currently on display through the end of May at the North River Civic Center in Hixson, Tenn., which is open Mondays through Fridays from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Each painting is for sale.
The group holds workshops in the studios of its members for the purpose of mastering techniques for interpreting the sky’s ever-changing moods. Members hope to inspire others to enjoy the “marvelous creation above our heads,” Hobbs says.
“The most amazing thing about this whole adventure is we’ve been looking at the sky more. We all knew the sky was amazing; we just never looked up enough. Now we make a point to go outside and take in the incredible formations that occur all day long. People who spend all of their time looking straight ahead are missing out,” she says.
Members of the Sky Painters include Sandra Babb, Jim Badger, Betty Hamilton, Hobbs, Sherry Hullender, Janice Kennedy, Evelyn Marie Williams and BJ Wright. Only Babb and Hamilton have degrees in art; the rest have “come to painting late in life,” Hobbs says.
The project has coaxed almost all of the artists out of their element. “Janice was a watercolorist, but she’s picked up acrylic. Her clouds are beautiful. She puts in lots of shades of color,” Hobbs says.
Hobbs is also impressed with Hamilton, the group’s expressionistic painter.
Until a few years ago, she’d never used her degree. If she’d stayed in art, she’d be as famous as Pollock,” she says.
Unlike Hamilton, Wright is self-taught, a fact her paintings hide well.
“Her skies don’t have a lot of activity in them. But like the real thing, they tend to be surprising,” Hobbs says.
Williams is the newest member of the Sky Painters. Her paintings suggest she’s also the most whimsical. One piece features bubbles drifting across a pastoral scene, with hills and clouds visible through the soapy spheres.
“She does a lot of experimenting. I was thrilled when she joined us,” Hobbs says.
Hobbs is also pleased to have Babb, an impressionist; Hullender, an accountant who paints on weekends; and Badger, a cartoonist whose graphite sketch stands in stark contrast to the velvety colors that characterize the paintings of his peers.
“I might buy that one,” Hobbs says.
She’s less enthusiastic about her own work, but only because she’s a perfectionist. She frets over “October Cumulus,” which she says needs more shades of blue, and admits to throwing her most recent work in a garbage can. But the elegant “October Cumulus” speaks kinder words about her skills.
“It was based on a photo I took in the Ingles parking lot in Chatsworth. I keep my camera with me,” she says.
Given the ephemeral nature of the sky, the Sky Painters will never lack inspiration. And given the skills of the group’s artists, the general public will have lovely new paintings to enjoy for years to come. Hobbs just hopes they take the time to see their work, and are inspired to tilt their chins up even farther to gaze at the real thing.