“Winter Winds”
Eric Sloane, N.A. (1905-1985)
40″ x 24″
Oil on Masonite
Appropos of this evenings weather here at Weather Hill.
“I found that the pioneer countryman was peculiarly aware of the sky, with an extraordinary knowledge of weather because his daily living so depended upon it.” – Eric Sloane
From Aware: A Retrospective of the life and work of Eric Sloane by Wil Mauch.
Winter is still with us at Weather Hill! Woke up to a little more than 6” of new snow. To celebrate, here is a very charming pen and ink illustration by Eric Sloane, N.A., new to the gallery. We were fortunate to be able to purchase a small collection of pen and inks by the artist – we’ll try to post some this week. Enjoy the snow!
Here in north central Pennsylvania, we are lucky not to be experiencing many effects from hurricane (now tropical storm) Henri, aside from rain showers. Beginning in the Second World War, Eric Sloane became much more meteorologically minded, likely an outgrowth of his experiences flying with pilots in the 1930s. By 1941, Eric had written his first book, Clouds, Air and Wind. C. 1944-1945, Eric Sloane was commissioned to create a number of weather models as a memorial to Lt. Joseph Willetts, who was killed while flying for the U.S. Navy (see previous posts for more information). By 1951, these models were ultimately installed in The Hayden Planetarium (part of the Museum of Natural History, New York). Here is a photograph of Eric’s model of a “tropical cyclone”, or hurricane:
