Many of us can recall our first aeroplane flight, soaring through the clouds with an anxious shudder – then that soothing moment of calm as we gaze down upon the fluffy clouds from above.
It’s irresistibly like being in heaven, which may be one of the reasons why clouds have a special place in our minds – particularly in East Anglia, land of big skies and huge clouds. The Suffolk master John Constable once described the sky as "the chief organ of sentiment" and his paintings of clouds have been considered so accurate that they have been used to train pilots. Indeed, Constable was himself apparently so proud of his cloud-painting abilities that he told a friend, Archdeacon John Fisher, in 1823: “I am the man of clouds” and lest that seem an idle boast, art historian Ernst Gombrich said much later: “There are no more truthful images of clouds than those painted by Constable.”
Gavin Pretor-Pinney’s book, A Cloud A Day, exhorts us to engage with the sky: one could call him the patron saint of clouds. With several books about clouds behind him, Gavin started the Cloud Appreciation Society 20 years ago, starting a steady but significant cloud craze. The Society now has over 67,000 members across the world and Gavin knows cloud aficionados from Russia to South Korea.
The Society arose from a gap in our appreciation of clouds. “Omnipresent and ever-changing, clouds are among the most beautiful parts of nature,” says Gavin. “But I’d noticed – particularly in this country – that we complain about clouds as bringers of bad weather. We’d become blind to their beauty.”
Gavin hopes that his books will be a daily reminder to look up. “We should all spend a few minutes a day with our heads in the clouds,” he says. “It puts your feet on the ground.” Lift your vision, he says, and everyday concerns melt into air. “Cloudspotting is good for the body, our creativity and most deeply, our souls.” And the result is the happiness that comes from finding beauty in the everyday.
Since the Society began, mindfulness has become a huge trend. While this is welcome, Gavin offers a twist. The sky, he says, is dynamic and evocative: about engaging with something bigger than us, reminding us that we’re not in control.
There’s also a “trainspotting” aspect to cloudspotting, which anyone who learned about the different types of cloud in Geography at school – cirrus, cumulonimbus, stratus and so on – should understand.
“Clouds were first classified in 1802 by Luke Howard, a British scientist, who was influenced by Carl Linneaus’ system for plants,” says Gavin. “By 1896, ten classifications were made official.” And here the Society steps into history, updating this system in 2017 with the new ‘Asperitas’ classification, which he calls “turbulent, chaotic and wave-like.” It’s now officially part of the cloudspotting fun and as with butterflies, Gavin argues that “it’s good to learn a few names.”
Gavin’s books celebrate clouds for their cameo roles in culture: Joni Mitchell songs, Wordsworth’s poems, Constable’s paintings and – his favourite – Renaissance master Piero della Francesca. “Piero did a series of frescoes in Arrezzo showing a lenticular cloud. It’s remarkable. He was clearly an early cloud-spotter.”
Some might see a sinister edge, both in the brooding presence of climate change and man’s vainglorious attempts to influence weather. “There’s a long history of this, from appeasing the gods to the modern practices of “geo-engineering” and “cloud seeding” where you encourage precipitation (rain) to alleviate drought,” he says. “They’ve never ended well.” Rather than trying to control clouds, we should enjoy their ineffable nature. “Suffolk is great for cloud-spotting,” says Gavin. “Find some elevated ground, look out over the sky and you’ll see some great formations.” You may even see an Asperitas.
Cludspotting for Beginners by Gavin Pretor-Pinney, published by Particular Books, was a top 10 bestseller and shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year 2024
Purchase A Cloud A Day Book by Gavin Pretor-Pinney here: £22.00
https://harrycjwix.com/products/a-cloud-a-day?variant=56545571438937