The Story Behind a Painting

I start this painting with a sketch using bold colors. I put in the main elements. I want to show brushwork, keep it loose and portray the feeling of the big mountain.

This view of the mountain is from inside Denali National Park. There is a road that appears to lead toward the mountain. At this point in the painting my intention is to put in the road. Later on I decide it is an unnecessary detail that distracts from my main purpose and paint over it.

I add colors and think through how I am going to make the mountain appear ‘larger than life’. It seems so unreal when you see the mountain this close. It dwarfs everything else. My challenge is to figure out how to translate that experience into pigment and canvas on a flat surface.

I add the blues and purples of the sky and mountain, the light orange hues of the warm sunlit areas. I want to show the grand shape of the mountain so I choose a deep cobalt blue for the sky color on the left and change it into a cerulean on the right side. I add the clouds and ‘atmosphere’ of the white mistly clouds. I love to study the different colors of blue in the sky. The shadows of the mountain reflect the blues in the sky. The sky on the right side is lighter than the shadow. Making sure that I capture this helps give the form and substance to the mountain. It helps to make it appear massive.

I work on the foreground colors and play with shapes and intensity of color. I want the bright colors in the front to contrast with the muted lighter colors in the distance. My strokes of paint give the painting texture and help convey the action of painting. I keep it loose and fun. I love the feel of the brush on the canvas, push the paint until it is the color and value that I want. This manner of painting is very hard on my brush. I have worn this bristle brush down but it still works very well.

I am not happy with the intensely orange mountain on the right. It fights with the main subject and doesn’t add to the painting. The shadows are too dark and don’t capture the color or feel of the foreground. It’s not working. I lighten it up with some greens with the intention of going back in with lighter oranges on top of it.

I like the foreground much better now. It portrays the landscape, complements the main subject, the mountain, and provides interest with some interesting color combinations. The colors ‘work’ as an abstract painting with the shapes and the colors balancing each other and providing the eye flow and sensation that I want. It is an abstract painting that happens to look like Mt. McKinley.

I love what colors do next to each other and how the parts affect the whole. It is great fun to push around color until it ‘feels’ right.

“The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.”      —Hans Hoffman