As you may have noticed if you read my recap of the past few weeks, we’ve experienced a myriad of climates and landscapes recently.  While the sunny skies of Southern California were a welcome sight, there is still something so enchanting about the starkness of winter branches against a cloudy sky.  It seems ironic then, that these paintings by Los Angeles artist Jill Sykes should remind me so much of wonderfully overcast days.

When the sun is high in the sky, of course, it creates the most lovely shadows.  Yet sometimes it feels as if the individual forms of the landscape get lost in the blue.  On a day filled with clouds, though, everything stands in deep contrast with the whites and greys.  The individual branches of each tree are so much more pronounced, we can see the world without the distraction of color.  As lovely as any old black and white film.

The way Sykes silhouettes her branches creates an intriguing tension between the subject and background.  Leaving us to wonder in some cases which is which.

If you’d like to see more of Jill Sykes‘ work, please visit her website.