Vincent

  Vincent

There’s something magic about a Starry Night.  Last week we strolled out in a Canadian Rockies meadow at sunset.  We watched the sky as it turned red, then pink, and then faded away into black.  We stopped at a bench and looked up.  At first there was just a few stars but as the minutes passed, more and more stars appeared.   The sky became more and more magical as the milky way brightened into a bright cloud overhead. 

There are shades of black in the night sky.  The horizon where the sunset and where the moon is rising both have light still emanating.  There’s  shades of colors and a rim of light black against a blacker backdrop.  As you look higher in the sky, it is darker but then there’s the color of the different stars and the glow of the milky way.  Adding to the glory were Star Link Satellites whirling around in no apparent pattern. 

There was enough light to see beautiful colors in the forest canopy and on the river passing by.   Shades of the pallet were everywhere in the trees as they were displaying their fall foliage.  And those colors were dazzling as they reflected off the ripples of the river just in front.    

The colors in the sky and the land blended in a muted, but beautiful, rainbow to my senses.  We seldom allow ourselves to engulf ourselves in such beauty that the night sky offers.  If we are patient in allowing the light in, the reward is there.  A magical and spiritual reward. 

I can't paint or even photograph such beauty.  But I can etch and retain it in my mind.  It brings peace and tranquility and a special place in my heart and mind.

 I'll leave the painting of it to Vincent.   And thank you Don McLean for these beautiful words:

“Starry, starry night
Flaming flowers that brightly blaze
Swirling clouds in violet haze
Reflect in Vincent's eyes of china blue

Colors changing hue
Morning fields of amber grain
Weathered faces lined in pain
Are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand”