Burning Coal Makes Me See Blue

Can you see the touches of blue among the pieces of burning coal in this painting?  Most of the reference photos I am studying for my coal series are replete with the colors of gray, black and orange.  However, I found one picture that had blue traces and found out in Wikipedia that “a blue-colored flame only emerges when the amount of soot decreases and the blue emissions from excited molecular radicals become dominant.”  This artist is learning some science! and I love the color blue.

Why am I doing a series of coal art pieces?  My artwork is my voice and there is a chance that these coal paintings and drawings might help create a visual reminder of the significant dangers inherent in the mining, cleaning, transportation and burning of coal.  For the near future at least, every time I post a blog, I will mention the impacts caused by using this type of fuel.