Summer days in Zermatt are perfect for painting Alpine meadows and peaks
Zermatt is your quintessential Swiss Alpine village. Famous for the Matterhorn and as a ski resort, it’s wonderful mountain scenery is equally stunning in the summer and the pure mountain air and glorious sunny days mean the clarity of light is special and perfect for painters.
Zermatt is in the district of Visp, in the German-speaking section of the canton of Valais and is easily reached by train from Zurich or Geneva. It has a population of about 5,800 inhabitants. It is famous as a mountaineering and ski resort in the Swiss Alps. Until the mid 19th Century it was predominantly an agricultural economy.
The village was “discovered” by mid-nineteenth-century British mountaineers, most notably Edward Whymper whose conquest of the Matterhorn made the village famous. The Matterhorn was one of the last alpine mountains to be conquered (in 1865), and the first expedition that reached the top ended dramatically with only 3 of the 7 climbers surviving the descent. The story is related in the Matterhorn Museum.
Zermatt is a place of spectactular visual beauty. Its beauty is unsurpassed and there is something to inspire painters of all abilities. The village itself is full of quaint Swiss chalets and winding streets with glimpses of its iconic Alpine peak; The Matterhorn. The mountain railway and cable cars enable you to get close-up views of it and other snow-capped peaks.
To prevent pollution, which could obscure the town’s view of the Matterhorn, the entire town is a car and combustion-engine free zone. Almost all vehicles in Zermatt are battery driven and almost completely silent.
Lower down the mountains are glorious Alpine meadows with traditional Stadel huts (wooden storage barns on stone stilts), early summer flowers and herds of cows and bells, all making ideal subjects for the Artist. In the valley below Zermatt there are river scenes, old packhorse bridges and distant views of the mountain peaks.
Artists have long depicted Alpine scenes including Turner and more recently Ken Howard RA.
David Bellamy is a professional water colourist most famous for his paintings of mountains and wild coastal scenes, which stems from his fascination with the moods of nature in wild places. He has chosen to work in Zermatt in 2015 and will be inviting 10 – 12 students to join him and his wife Jenny next July. This painting holiday will be organised by Spencer Scott Travel on behalf of the Leisure Painter Magazine.