Down to Work. So what’s to be done with this amazing Landscape? After a few drives out to the mountains and a small hike I decided to make a start with initial experiments. Whilst I was still getting the studio set up, the first paintings I did were some small watercolours. I’ve got a romantic notion about the tradition of sketching with watercolour. A pocket size box containing tiny jewell like pigments with the potential to mix and depict every colour you’ll ever see. There’s also a mini brush in there, that slots into itself to make a bigger brush! It feels like the painter’s version of a James Bond gadget.

 

My Water Colour box and brush.

My Water Colour box and brush.

 

What I wanted to do with these first examples is make some loose washes of observed colour and then, as they dried, add elements of structures and patterns of rock forms in the mountains. So I wasn’t trying to make an image, more a collection of layered notes which are intentionally abstract.

It’s ironic that in many ways the power of Water helps to create these mountains whether it’s glacial ice or the annual snow, rain and moisture carried in the wind. I don’t think I deserve a Dry Martini just yet but with dehydration being a problem at altitude, I’m fine with water for now.

 

Mountain Sketches

Mountain Sketches