July 2022

Digital painting of a thunderstorm sky at night, in shades of blue and purple. There is a lightning bolt going diagonally through the frame, lighting up the whole sky.

July 2nd

We report: this is one of the other ways in which summer gets hot, not from the blazing sun but from sizzling electricity travelling through the clouds. We have never seen lightning strike anything from up close, but we still feel that primordial awe at the flash and thunder.

Digital painting of a golden hour sky over a green field with a line of trees and some power lines over the horizon. The clouds are tinted yellow against a sky in a gradient of blues.

July 1st

We report a golden hour that swept over this field, now lingering at the edge of the woods. There are sparrows flying high over the trees, chattering loudly, and over here, the grass is still a little bit warm from the afternoon sun.

Digital painting of a dark purplish-grey night sky, with a moon crescent on the right-hand side, and the black silhouettes of some branches in the foreground.

July 4th

We report: a rising moon crescent, 27% of visibility, five days old. We forgot where we were supposed to look for the moon in the night sky, and we spun around for a while. We are feeling a little bit dizzy, but we found the moon.

Digital painting of a dusk sky, a gradient from a dark blue to a light orange with some wispy cirrus partly covering the sky. There are a few birds flying high up.

July 3rd

We report, this evening, as the sky changed quickly and the humidity permeated the air, we heard some rustling in the bushes near us. We turned carefully and saw some deer in the clearing; it seems that we were downwind, because we were able to observe them for a long time.

Digital painting of a bright blue sky with white clouds, their shapes are rough and blurred at the same time.

July 5th

We report, this summer day, the sun is so bright today, whites out everything else. We stepped out and tried to look at the sky through squinting eyes, and only got a vague idea of what the clouds were like; but then their impression stayed on our retinas wherever we looked.

Digital painting of a sunset sky with bright and dark red clouds covering up most of it.

July 7th

We report the clouds, tonight, the colour of pomegranate, the sky was stained, spilling out. When we turned to our expert to point it out, their eyes and hair reflected the sky; there was a rosy glow on their face. There was a sweet smell in the air, or maybe we imagined it.

Digital painting of a stormy scene at the beach, dark clouds advancing on the coast, with a small portion of the sky still bright that reflects on the wet sand. There are some seagulls flying over the sea.

July 6th

We report: here on this beach, we are thinking about the lofty pursuits of the ocean, nibbling at the sandy coast every day, with infinite patience. We hope to take a little bit of it home whenever we come here.

Digital painting of some cirrus clouds, wispy trails of white curling up at the ends in a blue sky.

July 11th

We report, about cirrus uncinus; the cold heights of our atmosphere, where ice clouds form, curl up and rise with the temperature variations of the air. There is a jet stream shaping these cirrus formations with great force and speed. It is a bright summer day, down here.

Digital painting of some undulating white clouds in a blue sky, above a field full of poppies.

July 8th

We report: there was a breeze in the morning that grew ever stronger throughout the day, confusing the clouds into sinuous shapes up in the sky, and swaying the poppies and the bugs down here. Now, the rustling of the grass and the howling of the wind are filling our ears.

Digital painting of a dusk sky with dark grey clouds, and many bats flying away.

July 9th

We report, after this warm, cloudless day: we witnessed a flight of bats overhead as the sky darkened and the temperature slowly dropped. There was the sound of their wings flapping; and then we saw them, a large group leaving for the night, maybe more than a hundred of them.

Digital painting of a close-up of the moon, just a little bit past its last quarter.

July 21st

We report: tonight, our expert asked us, "Hey, what's this?" and when we looked at the direction in which they were pointing, we replied, "You mean, the moon?" and they said, "The what, now?". We still have not determined whether this was a joke or not. We are worried it was not.

July 10th

We report: clouds rolling down the mountain, one by one, or so it seems. We are halfway between a drizzle and a mist, down here, and the humidity is carrying the smell of the woods and the moss, and the mineral scent of the mountain.

Digital painting of some burgeoning, dark orange sunset clouds.

July 12th

We report: we wonder what hides in the shadows of these burnt clouds, where the sun cannot reach any longer. The day has exhausted its light at last, and we are making our way back home under tall towers of bubbling steam.

Digital painting of a full moon in between clouds in an otherwise black sky, with four birds flying across the frame.

July 13th

We report no stars tonight; the moon is peeking in and out from behind the clouds, as though surging from the void. This full moon is dark and quiet, and the night is unusually cold for this time of the year. The grass is damp and the humidity has soaked through our canvas shoes.

Digital painting of a delicate golden cloud in a blue sky.

July 14th

We report that sometimes, the sun leaves its tendrils suspended in the sky, to dissipate over a long time. Some lingering warmth and some light frozen in the steam. The way we look at it, at least - this is a little bit to last for ages in our mind.

Digital painting of a green field with a green tree and some power lines running through the frame. The sky above is a steel grey.

July 15th

We report: mid-July, a day in mid-summer like a drop in the ocean. A long time ago, there were days in summer that seemed untethered. We would wake up late, but the day would be longer than any other day, as though we were conjuring up new hours, inventing time out of thin air.

Digital painting of a cloudy sky, with a mix of sunny and dark. The sky is very blue behind all the clouds.

July 16th

We report, early in the morning, lately: there is a sunspot that moves across our pillow for one full hour, slow and patient, until it reaches our eyes. That is how we wake up, these days. This morning, in particular, the sky seemed so big when we looked through the window.

Digital painting of a starry night sky with a pink hue starting to appear at the bottom of the frame.

July 17th

We report: we had a strange dream. We called our expert to tell them about it but by the time they picked up the phone, there were only short bursts of light and colours remaining. We kept talking through dawn in hushed tones and fell back asleep when the birds started singing.

Digital painting of a sunset sky above a big city with many lights already turned on. The tones are orange and pink.

July 18th

We report, as the sky erupts in vibrant colours in the last moments of the day, most of the summer heat is starting to lift from the city. The asphalt is still radiating warmth. The streets smell like brake dust and exhaust fumes. We can feel a light breeze starting to blow.

Digital painting of some cirrocumulus in a vibrant blue sky, thin and delicate formations of wispy white clouds.

July 19th

We report: some clouds grow in the sky the way moss takes over a forest. At a slow pace, with purpose; a great enterprise that leads to the creation of an intricate lattice. This will not last though, this weaving will fade back into blue soon - the fate of clouds.

Digital painting of some heavy clouds with dark brown and grey tones above a dark sea. The clouds seem to unravel at the bottom, leaving a trail. The lighting is dramatic.

July 20th

We report, above the dark sea, the clouds are weighing heavy and starting to fray at the edges - our expert tells us these are called pannus, or scud clouds. We heard thunder earlier, and we can certainly feel the beginning of a good rain shower.

Digital painting of some small, flat clouds bathed in golden light in a blue sky, with some darker, grey, blurred clouds on top of them.

July 22nd

We report, this morning, in the way the sunlight grazed the clouds on its way down, we felt a little bit of peace. It did not last very long when we walked underneath some trees and got some dew in our eye, but the day went on as it began, slow and easy.

Digital painting of a field of sunflowers with a stormy, dark sky above. A single purple lightning bolt is striking above the horizon.

July 23rd

We report: the way it is with thunderstorms, sometimes they appear out of nowhere, and other times they build, and build. Then, we are expecting it to happen at any moment, and we stay tense, and the air feels like it is about to catch on fire; until, finally, lightning strikes.

Digital painting of an orange sunset or sunrise sky, with parts of the blue sky visible through the long, flat clouds.

July 24th

We report: every day spent looking at clouds, we are applying a magnifying glass to life. We lean in closer to the shapes and the colours. We feel a kinship with clouds, and by naming them, we feel as though we are respecting that kinship. Our made-up names for puffs of steam.

Digital painting of a sky after sunset, still quite light with a gradient of blue to orange, and some grey clouds freckling the sky.

July 25th

We report, today, we thought it was yesterday; or rather, we slept the whole day through without realising. When we woke up, the sun had already gone down, and we had not done any of what we had planned. We panicked for a bit, but in the end, the world did not end - a relief.

Digital painting of a bright blue sky with some towering white clouds. There are some defined sun rays shining down on the clouds.

July 26th

We report: we remember laying down on the floor of our apartment, with the window wide open (a few flies had come in, not all had come back out). We remember putting on a jazz album; from where we lay, we could see just enough of the sky. The sun was filling our room to the brim.

Digital painting of a grey sky with all kinds of shapes of clouds, and all kinds of shades as well. There are three birds flying high up in the sky.

July 27th

We report from under the sky: it is quite windy down here, and we can tell that it is not any less lively up there. We are trying to understand where the clouds are going, but we have observed a rather interesting dismantling that does not offer any direction in particular.

Digital painting of a dawn sky in a gradient of blue to pink, with a line of almost-black clouds at the bottom of the frame. The clouds are rising into the sky.

July 28th

We report news from the dawn: during the night, we managed to convince ourselves that the sun was not going to rise, that this was it. We were quite sad, too. We were mistaken, though; the night is spilling out from the sky. A new day is afoot. We are returning to the world.

Digital painting of a sunset sky, horizontal clouds in pastel shades of grey, orange, and pink, with a very thin strip of the light yellow sky in the bottom half of the frame.

July 29th

We report: we have a habit of taking great pains to describe sunsets to our expert - the colours, the shapes of the clouds, how long it took for the last bit of sunshine to fade. Tonight, though, we decided to tell the sunset about our expert, while they sat quietly next to us.

Digital painting of a bright blue sky with a small white cloud in the middle, over a dry, brown and green lawn, with one tree on the left-hand side, and a narrow path leading to the horizon on the right-hand side.

July 30th

We report, in this place, we are taking notice of a distinct lack of rain. The grass has turned brown, except for the spots where lawnmowers cannot reach easily. We are placing high hopes on this single, small white cloud (but we are not ready to take off our sun hat yet).

Digital painting of a heavy cloudy sky in dark greys; the sky is visible in the bottom half of the frame, but mostly covered by patches of rain, and tinted yellow. There is a line of mountains above the horizon.

July 31st

We report: there are heavy curtains of rain slowly moving from West to East over the looming mountains in the distance. The thick layers of clouds above are barely letting any light through. We are facing an early end to this day.

July 2022

August 2022

June 2022