Exquisite Oil Paintings Capture the Beauty of Cloudy Skies

Cloud Paintings by Ksenya Verse

Looking at one of Ksenya Verse‘s paintings is a good reminder to look at the sky more often. The Arizona-based artist captures the nebulous forms of clouds and their numerous colors in her exquisite oil paintings.

Originally from Russia, Verse moved to Arizona at the age of 19 to “broaden her visual and cultural perspectives.” There, she fell in love with the striking landscape of the American Southwest, finding particular fascination with the uninterrupted horizons, dramatic cloud formations, and shimmering bodies of water. “My work is all about the innate connection between the external sky and our internal emotions,” she explains on her website.

Verse creates her mutable clouds by layering different colors in soft, rounded shapes, and by emphasizes light and shadow. This connection to the sun and how it affects the appearance of the clouds is what brings the amorphous shapes to life. In addition, the artist uses composition to accentuate the size of her cloud formations by taking up most of the space with the sky and leaving the landscape as a thin strip at the bottom of the panel.

You can purchase original artwork via Verse’s website, and learn more about her painting process by following the artist on Instagram.