The Art of the Mountains

The Art of the Mountains - Chamonix poster with pastels.

With more time at home, I had time to sort my drawings and started thinking on what I will do with them. Some of them  I don’t have anymore, as they were gifts for certain people. I do need to put them in frames, but at certain time I was producing way too many of them- this was when I was going to drawing school once a week, and I have never come to do it, as it was a bit pricey.

Some alpine ibex posing in front of the Matterhorn. pastels.
Some alpine ibex posing in front of the Matterhorn. pastels.

I’ve started drawing ski posters, as I have always loved them, but I found them a bit too expensive as to splash on them. Obviously the ski posters are much prettier than my attempts in doing some drawings copying them. And I start copying them, but as I cannot deal with perspective, with where the things are on the canvas or paper, so I finish adapting the drawing to my advantage….nobody has to see the original next to mine!

Charcoal - skier in St Moritz. Mountain Art.
Charcoal – skier in St Moritz. The Art of the Mountains.

I did a course of different drawing techniques and materials with Simon Willems at the Conservatoire in Blackheath, SE London, UK, and what I’ve realised is that I like the charcoal and pastels the most.

The Art of the Mountains- Pastel of train from Chamonix to Montenvers- Mer de Glace.
The Art of the Mountains- Pastel of train from Chamonix to Montenvers- Mer de Glace.

Even though maybe the oil has the best finishings, I have not done so much with oil, and I find it that it takes too long to wait it to dry and keep on going…. I like to do a drawing possibly in one go and finish it.

St Anton's Valluga. Oil Pastels. The Art of the Mountains.
St Anton’s Valluga. Oil Pastels. The Art of the Mountains.

There are some that took me two or three goes to finish, and that was mostly because I have not liked the outcome and kept on going and adding more colour to see if I could fix them.

Continue reading “The Art of the Mountains”