Painting the Matterhorn

There are hundreds of mountains higher than the Matterhorn; there are hundreds that are harder to climb. But there is none, anywhere in the world, which has so consistently and deeply stirred the imagination of men.

Rising in an immense isolated pyramid on the high frontier between Switzerland and Italy, it possesses not only the dimensions, but the stark simplicity, of greatness, and its sprawling neighbour-peaks, several of which actually exceed its 14,782 foot altitude, seem to shrink into significance beside it. Through all the centuries that men have known and travelled the Alps their eyes have been drawn irresistibly upward to its savage, soaring pinnacle. Other mountains were—well—mountains. This mountain was beauty and magic and terror.

(from “Climbing the Matterhorn – A Collection of Historical Mountaineering Articles on the Brave Attempts to Scale One of the Highest Peaks in the Alps”)

Welcome to my Matterhorn adventure!

After painting the mountains around Mont Blanc, I have now been able to also get to paint the Matterhorn. What an amazing mountain, and how tricky to paint in oils. I never realised how quickly the view could change. As a plein air painter I have got used to the fact that over a period of time the scene in front of you changes. The sun moves, the shadows change, and the white van invariably parks in-between your set up and the thing you are painting!

But this mountain was a level above that. It changed every few minutes! The rocky peak seems to create its own climate, producing clouds that eminate from it on one side, and sometimes appearing and disappearing at an alarming rate in mist and snow. This makes it hard to paint. You have to retain a clear image in your mind of how it was when you started, and avoid chasing the light – or in this case, chasing the mountain. It was almost alive; a living, moving being.

And then there was the freezing temperature that caused the oils to go all gooey. I stopped thinning with water for the underdrawing, (as ever I used Cobra water-mixable oils) but even so the paint formed globules and became stiff to use. But then it was -10c (14F) or so.

When the peak hid behind the misty, snow cloud, I had to content myself painting some of the other rocky massifs (below).

My plan now, before heading off to some other mountain region, is to attempt some large studio paintings from the hundreds of photos I took. I’ll let you know here when they are on the website.

#art #oilpainting #matterhorn #pleinair #landscape #Paintingmountains