The Painter's Job

Mt. Rigi

"The job is not to describe or use local colors, but to use color combinations to create the sensuous reality of light and space."

No, we aren't going painting here this week but I came across that interesting quote by JMW Turner who famously painted this mountain near Lucerne, Switzerland in the mid-19th century.  He painted the mountain some 30 times; three of the most famous watercolor versions are below.  None of them looks realistically like the photo above.  He had the advantage of not having hyper-realistic photographic images of the scene lodged in his memory.  Even though I went to the summit many years ago in April when it was still covered with snow, when I think of the Rigi, I always see Turner's "The Blue Rigi, Sunrise" in my mind.  Plein air painting - what a great job!

The Dark Rigi

The Red Rigi

The Blue Rigi, Sunrise