painting a mountain climber

Watercolour painting of a climber in the mountains
Watercolour painting of a climber in the mountains

We're finishing our month of big, snowy mountains with this painting from Fiordland in New Zealand. It's from a photo I took of my husband back in 2010. This is on one of our many mountaineering trips in this beautiful and wild area just south of where we live.

We'll put together the skills we've already covered in the last few lessons on painting mountains and work with just 4 colours. It's quite a bold scene, with a small human element, which adds a bit of movement and gives the mountains a sense of scale and grandeur.

Happy painting!

Full step-by-step tutorial on my Patreon.

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
pen before the watercolour wash

pen before the watercolour wash

27 February 2026

Last weekend I ran a poll on Patreon and it seems a number of people are interested in different ways to approach watercolours and adding different media. I'm excited about this! Let's mix things up a...

Read more →

an olive branch in watercolour

an olive branch in watercolour

12 February 2026

There’s something wonderfully calming about painting botanicals. You don’t need to rush — you can slow right down and paint one leaf at a time, dipping in and out of the painting whenever you fi...

Read more →