aoraki / mt cook at sunset

Watercolour painting of a sunset over Aoraki / Mt Cook
Watercolour painting of a sunset over Aoraki / Mt Cook

We're back to New Zealand's highest peak this week. This time for one of New Zealand's most iconic and famous views - Aoraki / Mt Cook with Lake Pukaki in the foreground. And it's a sunset too - little happy dance ;-)

It's time to have some fun with all the lovely sunset colours on your palette to create the glowing sky and then use those colours on the sunlit snow and in the reflections in the water. The rest of the scene we paint in neutrals, so that the sunset colours really glow.

Happy painting!

Full video tutorial, reference photo and drawing to trace on Patreon.

Thanks to Marek Piwnicki on Unsplash for the reference photo.

Paint a free watercolour online lesson

A free lesson for you!

One of my all-time favourite paintings of a stormy day in a ruined Roman town in Spain.

You can do this! Let me show you how. Join my community to receive this free video tutorial.

Join here
summer flowers & an old fence post

summer flowers & an old fence post

16 June 2026

There's something irresistibly paintable about a weathered fence post half-swallowed by summer wildflowers. It's the contrast that does it — rough, sun-bleached wood against the soft, fleeting delic...

Read more →

recap! travel sketching in france, 2026

recap! travel sketching in france, 2026

9 June 2026

Five times at Périgord Retreats, and the magic is still there.. Every single time I hop on the train in southern France and get whisked through French countryside and villages to Gourdon Station — ...

Read more →

painting zebras in watercolour

painting zebras in watercolour

3 June 2026

Ater spending time in South Africa recently, surrounded by the kind of wildlife you only see there, I came home with many sketches of zebras, giraffes, warthogs, baboons and more and a strong urge to ...

Read more →