Thunder Clouds

Storm clouds pile up in dense, ink-blue masses over a wooded dune line in Thunder Clouds, a 12 x 24 oil painting by Nancy Davidson, the dark sky pressing down on autumn-gold trees that seem to glow in contrast to all that coming weather. Davidson strips the beach bare here — kelp scattered across empty sand, the tide pulled low and flat — leaving the drama entirely to the sky. It's one of her more foreboding pieces, proof that even a familiar coastline can turn genuinely moody when the clouds roll in off the Pacific.