No two sunrises are the same. The cliche fades when confronted by the beauty of the moment.
I recently travelled down to the Kent coast to Margate, where I used to live and where the great Mr Turner used to paint the sometimes glorious skies.
As well as a beautiful sunset I was lucky enough to also witness a magnificent sunrise and stood transfixed for what seemed like an eternity as I took in the moving scene and the constantly shifting interplay of colours and light.
No matter how much you understand the science and mechanics of it, the poetry of the earths rotation in space is overwhelming.
I somehow still feel compelled to paint this moment and its symbolism of the bigger picture; the vulnerability of our place in the heavens and the extraordinary power of our sun.
As so often the Greek myths are also perfect symbols. Helios in his chariot of fire racing across the skies adds humanity to the mysticism of our relationship to this passage of time and space.
Here are the first two results from that trip.
They will eventually form part of a small series on the phases of Sunrise, that bigger picture, which if weather permits can greet us everyday but which is wonderfully never the same.
The Moment Before Sunrise
Helios Rising, The Moment of Sunrise
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