The S.H. Ervin Gallery invited young artists to attend a cloud painting workshop during the 2011 January school holidays, using paints supplied by Chroma.

Participants firstly viewed the exhibition Curious Colony: A twenty first Century Wunderkammer , looking closely at the cloud paintings of Phillip Wolfhagen and Joseph Lycett on display in the gallery. Then, using these artists for inspiration the 13 students ventured outside to paint some clouds of their own ‘en plein air’ on Observatory Hill.
Using palette knives on canvas boards, the young artists enthusiastically threw themselves at the paints, scooping up oodles of delicious colours to smudge, smear and scrape into a cloud. Just like the clouds in the sky above them, the paintings changed every few seconds as the artists set about capturing the perfect cloud.
Cloud painting is a remarkably easy activity- even the youngest, 3 year old student produced an amazing cloud Finding the paints a joy to work with she eventually decided to abandon the palette knife in favour of fingers- much to the delight of her mother.
The participants and their families were very pleased with the results. S.H. Ervin Gallery was very appreciative of Chroma’s sponsorship, further allowing a new generation to experience the joy of painting.