Mountain Wonder by Mark Keathley

Getting to spend time in the mountains is one of the perks of being a landscape artist - I simply have to go!  However one of the hinderances to seeing it is there are not that many roads through the rugged west.   You can see mountains “way over there” but you can’t get to them.   The Durango Silverton Railway runs up the Animas River valley where it crosses the main highway a couple times for the first 10 miles, but then it heads up a gorge for 30 miles that no one can see unless you are on the train.   I love to hang out the back of the caboose as it comes back down the mountain from Silverton and catch each turn of the river as a new mountain view is unveiled with each bend in the tracks.   It has opened up many vistas from which my paintings take shape!   I hope you get to experience it one day- until then, enjoy Mountain wonder

~Mark Keathley