British painter John Constable (1776-1837) made many paintings of clouds. It looks like he depicted towering cumulus clouds in this painting of Weymouth Bay. These clouds may have turned into cumulonimbus and a storm later in the day.
Click on image for full size
Public domain/Wikipedia

Clouds in Art

Landscape painters have been representing clouds in their art for centuries. Different artists with different styles have painted clouds differently. What's more, there are many different types of clouds in the sky to paint. Sometimes the clouds in paintings are recognizable as a specific cloud type.

Clouds in Art Interactive
Can you identify cloud types in paintings? Compare photos of 10 different cloud types with 25 landscape paintings and see for yourself!

Clouds in Art Gallery
Explore how over 20 artists have represented clouds of various types in their paintings by visiting this online exhibit.

Educator's Guide to Combining Clouds and Art
Resources for art, science, and general educators who would like to combine the art and science of clouds in the classroom. Includes a downloadable presentation of the cloud images used throughout this section.

Last modified October 15, 2007 by Lisa Gardiner.

You might also be interested in:

Traveling Nitrogen Classroom Activity Kit

Check out our online store - minerals, fossils, books, activities, jewelry, and household items!...more

Cloudy Day: Hands-on and Online Classroom Adventures Bridging Basic Weather Science to Literacy, Arts, and ELL

Welcome to the online resources for out NSTA workshop entitled Cloudy Day! This web portal is intended to provide links and additional information to those who attended our workshop at a recent NSTA conference....more

Clouds in Art

Landscape painters have been representing clouds in their art for centuries. Different artists with different styles have painted clouds differently. What's more, there are many different types of clouds...more

The Sky is Low, The Clouds Are Mean, a poem by Emily Dickinson

The Sky Is Low, The Clouds Are Mean The sky is low, the clouds are mean, A travelling flake of snow Across a barn or through a rut Debates if it will go. A narrow wind complains all day How some one treated...more

Water, a poem by Pablo Neruda

Water Everything on the earth bristled, the bramble pricked and the green thread nibbled away, the petal fell, falling until the only flower was the falling itself. Water is another matter, has no direction...more

When The Sun Come After Rain, a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson

When The Sun Come After Rain When the sun comes after rain And the bird is in the blue, The girls go down the lane Two by two. When the sun comes after shadow And the singing of the showers, The girls...more

Spellbound, a poem by Emily Brontė

The night is darkening round me, The wild winds coldly blow; But a tyrant spell has bound me And I cannot, cannot go. The giant trees are bending Their bare boughs weighed with snow. And the storm is fast...more

The Cloud, by Percy Bysshe Shelley

I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers, From the seas and the streams; I bear light shade for the leaves when laid In their noonday dreams. From my wings are shaken the dews that waken The sweet...more

Windows to the Universe, a project of the National Earth Science Teachers Association, is sponsored in part is sponsored in part through grants from federal agencies (NASA and NOAA), and partnerships with affiliated organizations, including the American Geophysical Union, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Earth System Information Partnership, the American Meteorological Society, the National Center for Science Education, and TERC. The American Geophysical Union and the American Geosciences Institute are Windows to the Universe Founding Partners. NESTA welcomes new Institutional Affiliates in support of our ongoing programs, as well as collaborations on new projects. Contact NESTA for more information. NASA ESIP NCSE HHMI AGU AGI AMS NOAA