This year I have seen more large displays of northern lights than I ever remember seeing in a single year. I have a large bedroom window that faces north and I walk past it if I happen to get up to go to the bathroom in the night. If the sky is clear the northern lights have been out.

The northern lights are created by the sun flares and solar winds. As the particles from the flares move past the earth, some enter the earths atmosphere at the poles, it creates the aurora effect. Recently I learned that the different colors that we see are the atmospheric levels at which the particles are burned up in the atmosphere.

The pink and red colors are particles that are burning up at the highest level, about 150 or more miles above earth. The greens and almost white are the next level down, about 60 – 150 miles above. The purple/bluish ones are the lowest at under 60 miles above the earth.

Because of all the aurora’s this year, there has been a greater interest in painting them, as well as paintings of them. This past weekend I had the opportunity to teach a watercolor class on how to paint the northern lights in watercolor.

This class was arranged by those wanting to paint, so it was held in someone’s home with just 5 adults for a fun date night (one participant ended up having to work). They all were excited to try something new and were prepared to learn, so it was really fun to be there, to teach, visit, laugh and learn with them. They inspired me that day with their eagerness and the beautiful, unique pictures they each created (sorry, I forgot to take a picture!).

The next day I decided maybe that would be a good subject for a YouTube tutorial. I wanted something quick and easy, just to show the very basics of painting the aurora and a simple landscape in front to give it context. The video ended up being less than 20 minutes, which was perfect.

The northern lights are so fun to paint in watercolor. The way the medium spreads and moves on the wet paper makes it perfect for the movement of the aurora. Even though I didn’t get a picture of all the paintings from that day, one of the couples posted pictures on their YouTube channel as well. Click here to see their beautiful aurora, and click here or the picture below to get to my YouTube tutorial on painting the Northern Lights!