|
 |
Photo
© BBC |
Peter Cockroft
BBC London's Weatherman |
Peter Cockroft on Turner
Heavy Dark Clouds, about 1822
© Tate, London 2002 |
'The weather and the sea have played an important part in my professional and personal lives and both
of course feature in many of Turner's paintings and drawings.
Having learnt to sail at school I suspect the need to know about the weather naturally led me to a career in meteorology.
My first job was as a weather observer, quite literally watching the clouds, and having progressed from pottering in a dinghy
to offshore yacht racing I'm about to embark on my first ocean crossing.
It's for these reasons that Turner's 'weather' paintings and 'seascapes' have a real resonance for me.
Heavy Dark Clouds is a wonderful study of an approaching squall.
The contrast of bright blue sky with the foreboding cloud mass is a reminder of how quickly the weather can change.
I love the tinge of pink sunlight on the forward wall of cumulus cloud, the little bits of ragged stratus scurrying ahead of
the lowering cloud base, the way the squall's shadow is cast across the countryside and there in the distance - the dark
strands of rain.
I suspect if Turner painted this in situ then he would have had to scurry for shelter himself!'
|
