Blue Mountain Memories - Mountain Passage by Marilyn Wells

12” x 18”, watercolor mounted on basswood panel, 1.5” deep

From the Blue Mountain Memories series

so hard to conquer
mountain’s majestic soaring
beyond our knowing

— mw 2606WC

The blue mountains of Colorado live in memory as much as landscape. For those of us who have spent years beneath their changing light, they become more than distant forms on the horizon — they become companions, witnesses, and quiet presences in daily life.

In this painting, layered ridges and valleys open into a deep mountain passage, suggesting both distance and invitation. The blues shift from luminous snow-like whites to shadowed depths, creating a sense of movement through vastness, memory, and mountain silence.

This series is inspired by the mountains I have lived near for more than forty years, by the spare strength of sumi-e brushwork, and by my long devotion to teaching watercolor. Each painting reflects the meeting place between observation and memory, where color, water, and gesture suggest the enduring silence and majesty of the mountains.