How to Paint Mountains

Southern Wild Winds- 16-20 - Oil on Canvas  

One of my students recently asked, "How do I paint mountains? I struggle with capturing the angles and lights", which prompted me to write about this here by sharing one exercise that has been really helpful for me.

After all, this type of question is very common. Whether it's mountains, trees, or even a simple flower, some artists ask how to paint a specific subject. It’s natural to want a straightforward answer, but I think we need to think differently about it all.

As artists, especially when working from life, we tend to name the things we’re painting: “This is a mountain, a tree, a bird.” But here’s the trick – when we give names to things, we usually impose preconceived notions of what those ”things” should look like. We tend to come up with what our idea of a “tree” or a “house” is, when if we really stop to LOOK at the subject we are talking about, we may notice it has a COMPLETELY different shape from what we saw in our head. [Insert here line drawing of a house].  This can lead to very simplified and generic depictions that are nowhere close to what we actually have in front. Instead, a much more powerful approach is to train our eyes to see the world in shapes, colors, and values rather than objects.

Start by Seeing Shapes, Not Mountains

Let’s use the mountains as an example. If I told you to paint a mountain, you may imagine sharp peaks, snowy caps, or a rocky texture. But before you get carried away with details, take a step back and look at the larger shapes. Is the silhouette jagged or more rounded? Is one shape much bigger than the other ones? Are the shapes triangles or rectangles? Are they long and skinny or very wide? How do the shapes of light and shadow interact? What is the relationship between the shapes? How can you show distance? I think you get the picture?

Stop trying to paint snow or rocks, and start paying attention to the big shapes, next to the small ones and the relationship between them. These fundamental forms are what you’re really painting.

The Upside-Down Exercise: A Tool for Seeing

One of my favorite exercises for breaking the habit of seeing “things” rather than shapes is to paint an object upside down. This may sound strange, but by inverting your reference image or the scene, your brain is forced to stop identifying the object and instead concentrate on the actual shapes.

When you’re not worried about painting a “mountain” per se, you’ll find yourself focusing on how that dark triangle interacts with the lighter band beside it. Or how narrow that shape is next to the long triangle. This exercise helps you stop seeing “things” and start recognizing shapes, value, and color – the real language of painting.

Aside from observing shapes and the relationships with each other, we also pay attention to light. Mountains in this case,  are fantastic to study because they have very dramatic light at times. Early in the morning or late in the afternoon, the light is often softer, creating long, deep shadows. During midday, the light flattens things out. When the reference photo is upside down, we can’t name or recognize what we are painting so we are just observing and recording how light, dark or large a shape is. 

In this case, I didn’t want to get hung up on “waves”, “rocks”, and all the different elements in this painting. It was
easier for me to turn everything upside down and just copy the shapes. It took a lot of restraint to not turn it back up to “understand” what I was painting. The result was way more accurate and loose than what i would have painted from what I thought I had on the photo.

A Mindset Shift 

Of course this approach isn’t limited to mountains. Whether you’re painting trees, cityscapes, cars or a still life, thinking in terms of shapes rather than objects can make a huge difference in the way you approach your canvas. It encourages you to break down your scene into smaller chunks, allowing for greater accuracy, abstraction, or expression

Next time you find yourself stuck with a certain area of a painting or frustrated by a complex subject, remember to take a step back. Try flipping your reference upside down. Paint until you think you have enough information and then surprise yourself when you flip it back up the right way. It will probably look pretty good! At that point, I often spend some time making minor adjustments if I think they are needed. . 

This shift in learning to SEE differently is a skill that will be useful in your artistic journey for a very long time.  

Happy painting!