Landscape with Blue Mountains

Arthur B. Davies's "Landscape with Blue Mountains" is a watercolor with wax crayon and touches of gouache on pink laid paper. The pink paper is an unusual and distinctive support that gives the entire composition a warm, rosy undertone. The blue mountains of the title rise in the distance, their cool color creating a striking contrast with the warm ground. The wax crayon adds a resist effect—where the crayon has been applied, the watercolor beads and slides off, creating textured passages where the pink paper shows through. This combination of techniques produces a surface of great variety and interest. The gouache touches add opacity and weight to certain areas. This work likely dates from Davies's later career, when he was experimenting with different papers and combinations of media to achieve novel effects. The result is a landscape that is both recognizably a view of mountains and an abstract arrangement of color and texture.

Davies's experiments with different colored papers and mixed-media techniques show his continuing artistic development and his willingness to push beyond his established style.

This landscape on pink paper demonstrates Davies's late experimentation with color and materials, the unusual support transforming a conventional subject into something fresh and unexpected.