A Table Mountain Painting: Turning a Cape Town Memory into Contemporary Art
Some places stay with us long after we leave them.
For Toni Jones and her husband, that place is South Africa. They return every few years, drawn back by the landscapes, colour and energy of a country that holds a very special place in their hearts.
So when Toni approached me about creating a bespoke Table Mountain painting, the brief wasn't simply to reproduce a view. She wanted a piece of contemporary art that would bring back the feeling of being in Cape Town every time she looked at it.
Photo of Camps Bay
Toni and her family have spent many happy holidays in South Africa, and Cape Town in particular holds some wonderful memories.
At the centre of those memories is Table Mountain – the striking, instantly recognisable landmark that dominates the landscape around the Mother City.
But Toni also wanted the painting to capture something of the wider place: the extraordinary natural landscape surrounding Cape Town and the vibrancy and diversity of South Africa's "Rainbow Nation".
She had already seen my GOLDEN HOUR collection, and the colours immediately transported her back to evenings spent watching some incredible sunsets from their villa in Camps Bay.
Those glowing skies became an important starting point for the commission.
Finding the right view of Table Mountain
Toni also loved the view towards Table Mountain from Muizenberg Beach, where the ocean creates a huge expanse of foreground and the mountain sits dramatically in the distance.
This gave us the basis for the composition.
Rather than making Table Mountain fill the canvas, I wanted to emphasise its unmistakable silhouette against an enormous sky.
Toni provided me with her own reference photographs and ideas, and from these I developed several colour palette options for her to consider.
The brief was an interesting balance: warm and cool, vibrant and calming.
She wanted the painting to reflect Cape Town's colour and energy without losing the peaceful quality of standing beside the ocean and looking towards the mountain.
Photo of Muizenberg Beach, Cape Town
Creating a minimalist Table Mountain painting
For the final composition, I kept everything deliberately minimal.
Table Mountain forms a dark, almost abstract silhouette across the horizon, while most of the canvas is given over to the changing colour of the sky and sea.
Deep blues move through softer muted tones before meeting a band of glowing orange, peach and gold around the horizon.
Below, the cooler blues of the ocean create a sense of space and calm.
I particularly love the contrast this creates. The mountain itself occupies only a small part of the painting, but its distinctive shape makes it the focal point.
There was no need to paint every rock, ridge or detail.
Sometimes a landscape becomes more powerful when you take things away.
For me, that is also what painting mountain memories is about. I'm not necessarily trying to recreate exactly what a photograph shows. I'm trying to capture how it felt to be there.
Art collector, Toni, standing in front of her commissioned Table Mountain painting
Watching the painting develop layer by layer
One of my favourite parts of creating commissioned paintings is bringing the client into the process.
As the Table Mountain painting developed in my studio, I sent Toni updates showing the different layers and how the colours and landscape were beginning to emerge.
An oil painting changes considerably as it develops, particularly when working with glazes and layers of colour. Seeing that transformation gives the person commissioning the artwork a connection with the painting long before it arrives on their wall.
Toni was delighted to watch her South African memory gradually come to life.
And even better was hearing from her once the finished painting had arrived.
Today, her Table Mountain painting has travelled from my studio to its new home in Derbyshire, where it takes pride of place in the bedroom.
“The painting looks absolutely fantastic. I especially love it in the early morning when the light catches the colours. Every time I look at it, I’m transported back to South Africa — a country that holds so many special memories for me and my family. It’s wonderful to have a piece of that place in our home.”
For me, that sentence sums up exactly why I love creating commissions.
The painting doesn't just represent Table Mountain.
It represents family holidays, evenings in Camps Bay, the colours of Cape Town and a country Toni and her family return to again and again.
Now, instead of those memories living only in photographs, she has something on her wall that can take her back there every day.
Table Mountain commissioned landscape painting
Turn your own mountain memory into a painting
Perhaps your mountain isn't Table Mountain.
It might be somewhere you climbed on an unforgettable trip, a landscape you return to every year, the location of a honeymoon or family holiday, or simply a view that has stayed with you.
My bespoke mountain painting commissions are created from your photographs, memories and ideas. Together, we develop the composition, colours and atmosphere before I create the finished oil painting in my studio.
Because I don't just want to paint what your mountain looks like.
I want to paint how it feels to remember being there.
If you have a mountain memory you'd love to turn into contemporary art, you can download my free Guide to Commissioning Your Contemporary Mountain Painting to discover how the process works, or get in touch here to discuss your idea.
