DEMONSTRATION STAGE ONE

After sketching the main features directly on to the canvas I turned the work upside down to avoid drips while adding the sky with a very fluid wash of cobalt blue. I added thicker cobalt paint to the ridge line and worked it in to the support using a 1in flat brush. I blended it almost down to the bottom and then added ultramarine blue into the mix. I blended those together using a big flat brush, changing brushes often to keep them dry for the best smoothing effect

and build up depth. Cloudy days will give a flat look to snowfields but sunny conditions, if the light comes from an angle, can show up all the fluting (vertical weathering lines in the snow) and arêtes (sharp rock edges) because shadows are suddenly formed. I pay attention to the reflections from the ice up into the shadowed areas. There are shapes in there, shadows are not flat and even fluting can still be seen. Overhangs and snow cornices can often have a dark blue underline then an almost buff colour patch of reflected light bounced up onto it.

Adding details

Rock groupings or large rocks at the top of sloped areas can have a lighter line beneath them due to the upward tilt of the snow at their base. Glacial corries (big scooped-out bowls) near the middle top of mountains where the glaciers form and spill over, have a large crack at the back that occurs between the ice on the mountain face and the mass of the glacier as it moves and flows downhill. This bergschrund can have cracks big enough to show the rock through it. Small details and a good understanding of features are what makes a mountain painting sing.

I learned from J M Turner’s work that, if I want luminosity and glow, to paint in a few thin layers so the light bounces through them to the white canvas and back into the eye. For solidity I do the opposite – thick, dark layers stopping the light will make an object seem very firmly present.

In this painting I introduced distance between the foreground and the finished mountain with a very thin off-white glaze and painted over the whole peak In nature, atmospheric water droplets will be between you and the rock face, and this introduces that same atmospheric effect. I don’t always do this but when the mountain is large it’s appropriate. It lends a cohesive finish to the paint and details which can otherwise look too stark, sharp and overwhelming.

My aim in painting alpine art is to instil in the viewer the feeling of standing right in front of the landscape, hence I often measure my canvas in metres. Many thanks to Heidi for letting me paint this amazing mountain from her epic trek!