Before the storm

Before the Storm is an 11×14″ oil painting that captures a brief, charged moment of stillness just before the skies let loose. The scene features a winding rural road—one of those narrow Wisconsin backroads that curves like a ribbon through the fields—leading the viewer’s eye straight into a sky that’s clearly about to break.

What I love most about this piece is the dynamic movement: the pull of the road into the horizon, the energy of the swirling clouds overhead, and the contrast between land and sky. There’s a sense of anticipation here. You can almost feel the wind beginning to shift, the weight in the air changing. That familiar pressure that comes just before the first raindrop hits.

The palette leans moody—storm greys, earthy browns, olive greens—with flashes of light where the sun still fights to shine through. The brushwork is expressive and full of motion, especially in the sky where layered strokes create a feeling of turbulence and energy.

This isn’t a painting about chaos or fear. It’s about the beautiful, charged moment before everything changes. That sacred stillness. That inhale before the downpour.