Shadows in the West, Part II

By Donna Poulton

"[For] the painter … color has very few thrills.  Almost anyone can see color.  It is in the bright light or in the deep shadows, and the transitions between these, that the painter finds interest."

-- John Carlson         

Albuquerque, New Mexico, Credit: sburke2478

"Where there is much light, the shadow is deep."

-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe         

Over the Flathead River, Montana, Credit: Sam Beebe/Ecotrust

"Fear has a large shadow, but he himself is small."

-- Ruth Gendler       

White Sands, New Mexico, Credit: elimnmsu

Bryce National Park, Utah, Credit: wuji9981

Bridges and the Big Sky, Montana, Credit: ggolan

Slants #1, Credit: stillthedudeabides

Shadow of Delicate Arch, Credit: Aquistbe

Taos Church 4, Taos New Mexico, Credit: Vilseskogen

Light & Shadow, Montana, Credit: Roger Lynn

Mittens Shadow, Credit: Rose Robinson

“What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.”

-- Crowfoot      

Shadows

I noticed these shadows and I knew it meant it was sunny.

-- David Hockney, Artist        

By Donna Poulton

My earliest memory of shadows is from a time when I was three or four-years-old lying on my grandmother’s couch for an afternoon nap. I would watch the shadows of the Aspen leaves skipping and playing across the living room walls.  Even at that age I appreciated the ambiguity;  they were small good-natured shadows, but they were shadows.

Cañón shadows—Navaho, Credit: Edward S. Curtis, Library of Congress

Into the shadow—Clayoquot,  Credit: Edward S. Curtis, Library of Congress

Shadows, Crow Agency, Montana c. 1905, Credit: Library of Congress

Ranch in Montana, Credit: Library of Congress

Texas, Shadow of Oil Derrick on Sand Hills, Credit: Library of Congress

There are infinite shadings of light and shadows and colors... it's an extraordinarily subtle language. Figuring out how to speak that language is a lifetime job. 

-- Conrad Hall, Cinematographer         

Fence at Four Corners, Credit: Wenzday01

Cedar Shadows on Snow Covered Slopes, Credit: Library of Congress

Lookout Tower, Montana Credit: mattspinner

Shadow of the Cross, Credit: Bryan Davidson

Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you. 

-- Walt Whitman