"First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain,
then there is " - Donovan
The influence in landscape painting of a feature that comes to
dominate an artist's work and which he or she returns to often,
is the presence of a mountain.
The obvious candidate here is Paul Cezanne and his numerous
works featuring Mte. St. Victoire in the Aix En Provence region
of France. But two other painters that I admire also return to the
hills and mountain motif, depicting it in both figurative and
abstract ways.
The American artist Georgia O'Keeffe (1887- 1986) moved to
New Mexico in the 1940's and purchased "Ghost Ranch House".
The house and land afforded spectacular views of a barren
landscape and the magnificent " Cerro Pedernal" a flat- topped
mountain that featured in many of her paintings.
Likewise, the Lebanese/American painter, poet and essayist
Etel Adnan (b. 1925) has lived in various countries around the
world and in 1977 moved to live and work in California. There
she was greatly influenced by Mount Tamalpais, which she drew
and wrote about and frequently painted in it's abstract form.
In my own work I have often depicted the hills and mountains
of Greece, the dormant volcanoes of the Timanfaya national
park and more recently the Alpes Maritime region, bordering
Nice on the French Riviera.
"Les Alpes Maritimes - Nice" - Acrylic on canvas 24" x 24"
