see purple mountains.

I live on the prairies, but I’m driving distance to the mountains.

When I go to the mountains I like to sketch and paint them, and every time I do I tend to learn a little bit more about mountains, colours, and nature.

Mountains, it turns out, are purple.

And red. And orange. And green. And brown. And sometimes there is a little bit of blue.

I’ve never painted a grey mountain.

It’s the light and the rocks and the distance and the feeling evoked by standing at the base of something a bajillion times bigger than you and looking up at it to try and represent it with a few brush strokes.

But it’s also a lesson in painting what you see and feel and not the image that you brought with you from the prairies that doesn’t actually exist.