🥝 Mount Ngauruhoe

Colour, light, and acrylics

“Light is therefore color.” — J. M. W. Turner

I’ll start from the end of this chronicle: I sat down this afternoon to play.

The result was a small painting of one of the photographs I took of the beautiful Mount Ngauruhoe a couple of weekends ago during our ski trip to Mount Ruapehu in one of our hikes. The revelation of living on a large volcanic land came after experiencing these beautiful landscapes and learning a tiny bit more about Aotearoa, New Zealand.

Recently, I re-joined Art School and I am learning to paint with acrylics with the guidance of an amazing artist and teacher: Matthew Browne, in his school in Auckland. One of the big learnings for me so far has been the link between drawing and painting through tone. The fact that colour is light, and therefore, every colour is a certain tone in a black-and-white spectrum.

I am step by step incorporating all of these learnings into my practice. Unconsciously, though, I have already drawn with colours and tones in previous Kiwi Chronicles. These are some very quick sketches I did of Mount Ngauruhoe after our trip. Because that maunga was so gorgeous, I couldn’t stop taking pictures of it - the light was changing almost every minute and the landscape and details were framing the mountain in a beautiful way.

8:14

We were driving towards Whakapapa Ski Resort for our second-day skiing. The day before (Friday) had been cloudy, with a few snowflakes falling. Because of the lack of visibility, even though we were in the area, we couldn’t see any of the mountains from below. On Saturday morning the day woke up with clear skies and there it was beautiful Mount Ngauruhoe awakening to a new day while driving to Mount Ruapehu next to it. It reminded me of those fantastic drawings of Mount Fuji by Hokusai with the snow on top.

The light was cold. And everything was tinted with a purplish aura.

10.53

The sun was rising and illuminating the left side of the mountain. We hiked facing the mount during the morning.

10:59

The light was getting brighter but the coldness remain in the distance. The blue of distance.

11:16

The mount was almost a continuation of the light blue sky, only interrupted by some passing clouds and the brightness of the snow on the sunny side. The rest of the view remained in a warmer proximity framing the mount.

13:00

Pass midday we were coming back from our loop. We had got close to the mount and now we were walking away from it. Although for me it was impossible to keep looking back at it and taking a thousand pictures, in my mind and in my phone, of this stunning landscape.

13:04

Almost where we started, I looked back just one more time. Using colour (light) to document these travels makes me pay more attention and also understand the world around me in a deeper way.

How beautiful this country is and how many other adventures are to come.

✏️✨

Happy sketching!

Ana

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All images and text © Ana Vila

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PS.

Going back to the beginning, and the end, I sat down to play, to experiment with acrylics, and to test the things I have learned in Art School. These are some images and notes on the process, plus the stunning photograph I painted: