Why a sky ?

Didn't Patrick Moore work with Brian May on some kind of project recently Ruth asked (no relation)

You asked two questions, Mick to start off with.  Why A Sky?  and posted Why do people take pictures of sunsets?

I would hazard because the sky is part of a landscape, and as the sky alters, so does our perceptions of the landscape alter with it. Your "Bleak Rye Harbour" might be a case in point. with a bleak winter's sky it does look bleak indeed, as the sky has helped us understand that, but if it were a nice sunset with it, our perception of how it now looks would alter too. If the sky were then left out of either, our feelings of how a scene looks would alter as well, as the sky, and what it is doing, is adding emotion to a scene.

Thus why do people take pictures of sunsets? The emotion it creates within them they want to record and enjoy again, at their leisure and share that emotion with others too.

Hi Paul,

You have expressed that thought so well, and yes, I agree with you entirely. Sunsets and sunrises have always created emotions that reach deep into the human psyche. The start and the end; the birth death and rebirth; the life cycle. Every culture on earth is governed by these rythms. Why shouldn't we gaze in awe at these spectacles, and enjoy the stirring of primitive emotions that they generate?  

Hi Ray--your thoughts made me think of Stonehenge as a type of example-ish.

John Constable painted 2 versions of " Salisbury Cathedral From The Bishop's Grounds"; the first being rejected by the Bishop as he didn't like the sky. The revised one is the more familiar one we see---with the more pleasing sky.

I have two near identical paintings of Willy Lott's Cottage at Flatford Mill by a former Rye artist. Essentially, the skies differ, and people's reactions to both paintings seem to differ because of the sky differences, and how the two paintings make them feel because of it.

A seemingly simple question that isn't quite as simple as it sounds, on various levels to do with people, English, or globally.

Mick--your " Bleak Rye Harbour" photo--yes, one could demonstrate it looks bleak if one chose to do so, and put that point of view across in a picture, using the sky to assist.

But, to others , Rye Harbour isn't bleak at all and provided my Mum with many happy years down there on her boat; going fishing, seeing friend's etc. In fact, it meant so much to her being down there, in 2004 I spread her ashes in the out-going tide way out where you said it was bleak, so she could be somewhere she loved a great deal. Depends on your perspective, doesn't it?