Soul of the Storm

Self-described “storm junkie” and artist Ian Sheldon compiled 83 of his paintings in a new book, Storm Chaser (Lone Pine Publishing). His work captures the intensity and allure of the prairie skies at their most fierce, and restless.

Sheldon painted his oil-on-canvas works based on photographs of actual storms. The multiple layers of paint he uses give them energetic, luminescent qualities. Storm Chaser acts as a chronology of the self-taught painter’s style over the last 10 years, from “rugged and course” to “more strategic and finely layered.”

Excerpts from noteworthy writers and poets, such as Sharon Butala and Pierrette Requier — both meditating on the power of natural landscapes — accompany his art throughout the book, as well as his own essays on the personal connection he has with earth and sky.

It’s something he feels each time he sets foot in the prairie fields — his “soul’s nurturing fuel,” he says.