Mount Tamalpais

For the Lebanese American artist Etel Adnan, Mount Tamalpais in California was more than a view outside her window. She lived for years within sight of this peak and painted it over and over, watching how its shape and color changed with the hours and the seasons. In this version she has stripped the mountain down to its bare bones, building it from solid blocks of green, blue, and warm sandy tones. The paint sits thick on the surface, pushed into place with a palette knife, giving the whole scene a real sense of heft.

Before Adnan committed herself to painting, she made her name as a poet and essayist, and that background shows in how little she wastes here. She skips the small details entirely and lets color and shape do the talking. A tiny wedge of bright yellow tucked near the bottom cuts through the calmer greens and blues like a small burst of sunlight. She once called this mountain her closest friend, a steady presence she came back to throughout her life, and that long familiarity is exactly what lets her sum it up in just a handful of honest, confident strokes.