I found Paul Cézanne’s mountain

Considered the father of impressionism and father of cubism. For me he is the father of plein air painting. Directing us in one thought, to uncover the riches before us.

cezannes mountain

See Cézanne went to his back yard to paint almost every day. From his large back yard his main focus was a mountain. They later referred to it as Cézanne’s mountain since he plein air painted it so many times. Every time trying to catch a little bit more of its charm, its innate characteristics that would describe it as art.

Each day something must have changed. A color, the density of the atmosphere, the moisture or the rain soaked ground. Like in life, everything keeps changing and some things can remain constant. His mountain was constant to him.

My mountain turns out to be a marsh or low country area in Bluffton South Carolina. Part of my winter backyard for three or four months of the year. In the warm sunlight or cool moist morning air the light and the colors continually change everyday on the marsh. The water, the tall grass, the puff mud and the tall trees in the distance all add to the painting.

It does not get tiresome, but richly yielding of its unlimited source of art. I am ever in awe of God and how he could create something so amazing that we as painters will spend our life trying to capture even some small fragment of its character. If imitation is the greatest compliment then painters are forever trying to compliment Gods magnificent creation.