After the Summit: Contemporary mountain artist
When did you first realise you wanted to paint the mountains?
It was descending from Thorong La Pass, on the Annapurna trek that it hit me: when I got home, I was going to paint - constantly and obsessively. Not to capture the mountains, but to express what it felt like to be in the Himalayas.
I suspect many people experience moments of clarity in the mountains. Removed from the noise of everyday life, there’s space for something quieter, something that can feel almost spiritual. It’s often in these moments that we find the clarity and courage to step away from the traditional path and choose a different direction.
Cat Goward painting mountain landscapes in her studio
How did that experience shape your journey into art?
After that trip, I spent the next four years painting relentlessly, slowly defining my style, all the while working my 9 to 5 corporate job. Every piece traced back to that experience: vast blue skies, snow-capped peaks at dusk and night and darker, more atmospheric mountain scenes.
That trip proved to be life changing. At forty-one, I made the decision to leave a career in software sales and become a full-time mountain artist. It was a leap, away from a conventional path and towards something that felt far more aligned: a life shaped by both mountains and art.
I am an emerging artist, without a formal art school background. Instead, I was taught to paint from the age of four by my grandmother, an artist herself. That early foundation, combined with a lifelong connection to the mountains, has shaped the direction of my work as a mountain artist.
Himalayas in Blue (mountain painting commission)
Where did your connection to the mountains begin?
My love of the mountains was shaped from an early age, on frequent hiking trips to the Peak District, through to my first major summit, watching sunrise from the top of Mount Kinabalu in Borneo. It continued with jungle trekking in the Andes and later the Tour du Mont Blanc in the Alps and the GR20 in Corsica. Across all these landscapes, I began to understand that every ridge, shadow and contour tells a story.
I translate the stories of these vast landscape scenes into art. You can’t capture everything, so you focus on what matters most - whether it’s the luminous snow-capped peaks or the clouds drifting around them. The mountains and the weather are constantly changing. Even the slightest shift of light can make a peak glow like fire. I loved those moments: snow-covered summits appearing to float against a vast blue sky, the silence, the scale and the crisp mountain air.
As a landscape artist, I aim to convey these experiences through colour and impasto (thick palette painting) mountains, carving rugged peaks against expansive skies. Often, the scenes become almost abstract, yet to the mountain lovers and nature enthusiasts that have explored these spaces, the paint captures what they truly feel and see.
What are you working on now?
I now work full-time as a mountain artist. My first collection, INTO THIN AIR, was just the beginning. I paint mountain ranges from around the world, drawing directly on my experiences as an adventure traveller and trekker. The next collection, GOLDEN HOUR, is inspired by sunsets and sunrises seen in Cape Town’s national park in South Africa, Yosemite National Park and trekking the GR20 in Corsica. I also regularly take on commissions, creating bespoke mountain paintings for adventurers and art enthusiasts alike.
Cat Goward painting in her art studio in London
