Skypath
in words
This page was conceptualised as an alternative to image-descriptions on the main Skypath page.
The main page is a series of pictures in a row, scrolling from left to right. Each picture is of a landscape - some are photos, some are traditional or digital art.
They are arranged to suggest going on a journey: as you scroll rightwards, you feel like you are moving across a landscape. The background behind the pictures is a gradient, begining with white and moving through shades of grey towards black.
Village to Hillside
A photo by an unknown artist
Sparse houses scattered across flat green fields. Behind them, a looming small mountain. The sky is gray, and the shadows are long suggesting a cold afternoon
View from the hill
A painting by David Alderslade
A bright image, with slightly psychedelic proportions. The sides of the hill curve downwards, and you can see fields, houses, clumps of trees, and the sea. The sky is blue and filled with white and blue clouds which seem to be swirling. There is a bird in the sky, and near you there are two dogs looking out. Despit the clouds, the day is sunny and warm, and the dominant colours are bright blue and warm green.
Between land and sky
A painting by Angela Lake
An enigmatic image in muted or pastel colours. You seem to be on a hillside and looking upwards close to the top. Swirling lines in the grass suggest a path towards the horizon. On either side are sparse trees and hedges. The sky is blue with suggested clouds. The image is dominated by a white point in the sky (sun? moon? a star?). Lake has painted a white ring wide around the point, like a corona produced on a photograph. It looks like a circle, and then above and below it are two half circles. This makes the picture look unusual, like something magical or unexpected is occurring.
along the hillside
A painting by Bridget Macdonald
An serene image, in gentle colours and an impressionist style. It is now 'blue hour' at night. The viewer is stood on the crest of a hill, looking down over two hills in the distance and vaguely suggested plains. The sky is pale night-time blue and there is a bright white full moon. The hills and fields are a soothing blueish green.
into the woods
A painting by Gilbert Williams from 1985
A luminous and otherworldly painting of a night-time forest glade. It is all in shades of bright blue, white, purple, and blue-green, and feels magical and unreal - but safe and pretty. There is a silverish path or stream winding into the trees towards a white waterfall. The trees are young and slender, with white lights in them (which might be stars). By your feet are a mat of tiny white flowers on the floor.
encountering the sanctuary
A painting by an unknown artist
Strong vibes like you're in a new age shop in the 1990s looking at notebook covers. A tranquil midnight blue lake, lit by a round bright moon. There is a swan on the lake, wings raised. There are a couple of young trees with white bark reflecting the moon, but around the lake is mostly open and unclaustrophobic. By the lake is a vaguely Grecian building: seven white marble columns, holding up a white marble dome.
in the sanctuary
A painting by Gilbert Williams
A surprisingly colourful image compared to earlier ones in the sequence. It is of an outdoor place but gives the impression of being inside and human-controlled. It is night-time, the sky is bright blue and there is a crescent moon. There is a small lake with a small boat on it, big enough for a pillow and blanket. There is a path to the lake tiled with orderly stones. Behind the lake is a Grecian building again, with columns and a greenish dome, and warm gold light inside. In the foreground is a hammock strung between trees, a bed under a gauze canopy, a ladder up to cushions in a tree; plus a floor-desk made of stone with books and a quill, and cushions on the floor next to a ground-table with hot tea and waiting cups. The sense of cosiness predominates, and like wind, sun or rain has never touched this place.
within the sanctuary
A photo from NewEnglandHome
An interior photo of an extremely fancy conservatory. The octagonal ceiling is painted dark blue with gold stars, and a gothic frame. Light comes in above a complicated gold lampshade with blue glass panels. There is a gothic window showing a stately garden outside. In the room is wicker furniture, a glass table, and indoor palm plants. The room is cosy, fussy, controlled, but still proximate to the exterior.
down the river
A painting by Rob Gonsalves
A surrealist image in bold blue and white tones. In the foreground, people hold lanterns and ice skate on a frozen river. The river ice is deep blue, and the snow of the river bank is bright white with wintery black trees.
But as your eye follows the river towards the back of the painting, it merges into the sky. The lanterns are now stars; the white snow drifts are clouds; and the blue river is the sky. The moon is white, round and bright.
towards the mountans
A painting by Harald Sohlberg
A peaceful image in soft blues and whites. You look out at a horizon dominated by white mid-sized mountains. Between you and the mountains are flat, empty terrain, and some dead trees. In the sky are the occasional star, with one right on your eyeline above the mountains.
at the harbor
A vintage illustration from a book
An icy landscape, with people dotted about. In the foreground is a three-masted ship and basic shapes suggesting piers. The image is dominated by a huge bright celestial light with a corona and a cross, probably the moon but possibly a massive star.
taking sail
A modern illustration by aegeri
A magical and surreal image, which some viewers might recognise as illustrating the story of Earendil and Elwing from J.R.R. Tolkien's Silmarillion. On the left is a simple ship with a large white sail, with a blue symbol on it with six-pointed and four-pointed stars. The ship is on white foamy clouds, surrounded by stars and ink-blue outer space. On the prow, a figure raises their hands and seems to be holding a celestial light which radiates outwards. Above the figure is a white bird.
lost on the ice
A romantic Victorian painting by François-Auguste Biard
An arctic landscape, in white and muted blues. The sky is obscured by wisps of cloud and blown snow. Rocks and mountains loom impassivelt in the background. There is the suggestion of icy cold water - a pool or the sea? The foreground is dominated by white snow. There are a cluster of people - dead or dying, and covered with the snow. Despite this, the landscape feels a little magical as well.
untitled
A photograph
An arctic landscape. It is hard to make out what the shapes actually are, but there is a sense of hugeness and isolation. Purple-grey clouds and shapes on the horizon, and a huge flat empty snow plain. In the center is a tiny human figure, and a line of footprints. The human might be heading for the suggestion of a mountain? a hill? or a heap of ice? in the distance.
untitled
A photograph
A grey, featureless oceanscape. The sea is turbulent, and the sky is empty and overcast. Both are very grey and have no sight of land.
You can in fact sort-of see a handful of offshore wind turbines on the horizon, but I wish they weren't there; I've just struggled to find an image I liked more. Pretend you didn't see them.
daring the infinite
A collage photo or digital manipulated image
Black and white. A shape of a tiny person, on top of a large snowy mountain surrounded by other mountains. Cold light emanates from them. The sky is pure black, but there are two huge white corona rings dominating the sky. It is unclear what they are supposed to be in a literal sense, so they seem alien or frightening. Possibly a black sun, or a black hole, or perhaps a solar eclipse at the stage the sun is about to be fully covered apart from the last light which illuminates the person. The image conveys a sense of cosmic awe and terror.
under the wave
A photo by Thierry de Cordier
An image of nature which seems like an abstract. There is no human or object for a sense of scale. Most of the image is one huge wave like a wall coming at the viewer. It is black, greenish, greyish and white, like marbled colours that are beautiful to look at. Above it is presumably sky, which is whiteish and grey-greenish. If you were stood here in real life, you would be in danger, so the image feels frightening but also awesome.
into the abyss
A photo
An image of nature which seems like an abstract because it does not seem real. It is a drone photograph of the ocean from above. There is a dark blue-black hole in the ocean dominating the image, and it's surrounded by white foam radiating out like the edges of a star shape. Presumably, the photo is of somewhere like Blue Hole where there is actually a hole on the bed of the ocean that goes deep down, and that changes the behaviour of the water around it. But as a photo it is awesome, and seems like a portal or black hole formed within the sea.
oceanfall
A digital painting
A sparse image. A human figure has fallen into the ocean with a splash. The camera is under the sea, so you can see them tiny and surrounded by bubbles. The sea is entirely featureless - brighter blue at the top, then seeping into darker blue and black at the bottom. The person seems to be falling, and is at the top of the image, suggesting they are about to fall very deep indeed.
beneath the waves
A digital painting
A sparse image. The camera is under the sea. A human figure floats upright, close to the surface. The surface of the sea is at the top of the picture and rippled. There are shafts of blue light, but they only penetrate so far. The bottom half of the image is black.
washing up
A painting by Zdzisław Beksiński
A cosmic and slightly surreal image. The night sky over the sea, with the viewer stood on the shore. The image glows in an unreal way (if it's night, where is the light coming from?). The tide approaches the viewer as the waves wash in and out. Around your feet is clutter that's washed up - it's not clear what it is, but it looks vaguely like human objects, including a green book and a red bird and other pocket clutter.
on unnamed shores
A digital manipulation of a photo
A glitchy and highly manipulated image. There is the sense of a sea and a coast, and above it a round celestial object in a sky surrounded by rainbows and clouds. The colours are vivid and unnatural, like an oil slick - bright green, amber orange, purples and pinks and flecks of red.
beyond the veil
A digital image by Jeremiah van Guilder
A geometric abstract. In the center is a small, squareish black rectangle. It is surrounded by white action lines in all directions against a black background, so it seems to be hurtling away or towards you. The lines are varied so they have a slightly optical-illusion effect, and seem to be moving. There is no sense of what it is in real terms.