I spent the last weekend in the mountains, in the Chamonix area in France, where I took a million pictures while doing my first hiking tour ever. A very good friend of mine, madly in love with mountains, glaciers, and art came up with an idea that painting a mountain is very much like painting a portrait. It is impossible to paint a mountain properly if the artist who embarks on the painting is not aware of the mountain’s origin, history, the way it has been maturing, etc. Getting to know a mountain is also about learning of its behaviour in different light, and weather. Mountains can have a very different view of humans depending on the time of year or the season.
Of course, it is always possible to trace a photograph onto a canvas, but what’s the point in in painting then?
As people generally love watching mountains, taking pictures of mountains, and remembering mountains, there is a horde of artists who churn out mountain images and even tell you about their secrets on YouTube. Do they add anything to the understanding of mountains, human infatuation with the huge rocky things, or the human character with all its strengths and weaknesses that manifest themselves when Man meets a Mountain? Erm. No.
Turner was one of the greatest explorers of human character against the backdrop of a mountain ridge. Roerich established a spiritual link to Tibet via his shapes, colours, and mad beliefs in the Mother Earth (or something similarly crazy).
Raise your hand if you know someone else! I’d love to know more “mountain names”.
In the meantime, here are a few views that impressed me so much I got interested in finding more mountain portraiture painters!
UPDATE: Boryana, a good friend of mine and an amazing artist suggested Cezanne and his 60 paintings of the mountain Sainte-Victoire as an “mountain artist name”. Of course! Especially in view of his own testimony: he wrote that needed to know the geology, and specifically the geology of Sainte-Victoire because it moved and improved him. I can’t stop wondering how Cezanne’s ideas resonate with those of the friend of mine who compared painting mountains to portraiture!
Standing Ovation, Seated 
Gorgeous photos! What a trip.
Yes, the trip was amazing! Thank you! )
Reblogged this on VINTAGE STUDENT.
Reblogged this on psychosputnik.
Wow! These photos are breathtaking. The colors are vibrant. The cave you were in (I’m assuming it is a cave) are those colors of purple, yellow, pink and green the natural colors being reflected?
Breathtaking photographs you have!
Thank you! Glad you liked them ) Alas, I know precious little about mountains to make their portraits, in the artistic sense
Cezanne spent a lifetime painting Mont Sainte Victoire.
Oh, yes, yes, yes! I should have included him – and now I remember him writing that he needed to know the geology, and specifically the geology of Sainte-Victoire because it moved and improved him. Ha! I just realised how Cezannite this friend of mine is in his views!
That’s a lovely painting by Neda. It captures something etherial.
The mountains of the Chamonix area have to be rather recent because of their sharp angular appearance. The older mountain ranges are more rounded, such as the Canadian Shield. I think the attraction of mountians is, in part, because of the movement of the earth in their formation. It does represent almost a living entity in their formation.
Leslie
Yes, the Alps are very “recent” – 750 mi years (Himalayas are twice older). Yes, the slow motion of life is a big part of mountains’ metaphysical attraction, but there’s also something primeval about it ) Something that the “reptile” brain remembers )
I agree and that in part is some of the mystery and appreciation of the mountains.
Leslie
great rock portraits
Thank you, but those are just cursory impressions. I have a friend who is now doing a series of rocks and deserts, when i will share it, you will see real portraits of rocks. I really can’t wait to see them myself)
let me know when they arrive
beautiful! 🙂
Thank you!)
your welcome
Mountain names? I’ve spent five years of my life, when I was young, working at Pontedilegno – Passo del Tonale, North of Brescia .
That’s a painting I did last year remembering a mountain I watched there every day.
“Il Castellaccio”
Good evening and many thanks for your beatiful photos.
Thank you for the painting! There is a lot of beautiful tenderness in it. Wonderful work!
Many thanks for your kind words. I had drawn on paper this mountain a lot of years ago and painted only last year for not forget.
Good afternoon.