The Mountain Dreams

Mixed Media Painting

"The Mountain Dreams" is an abstract work rendered in mixed media on canvas, built upon an acrylic base and enriched with gold leaf, heavy impasto, and meticulous hand-dotted passages. The composition unfolds along a dramatic diagonal, rising from a monumental dark mass at the base — a craggy, volcanic form rendered in thick layers of deep brown and near-black — toward an atmosphere of turquoise spirals and gold-leafed celestial forms above. The painting divides itself naturally into earth and sky. The lower register is heavy and tactile: a mountainous structure dominates the centre, its surface built up with palette knife and heavy brushwork to create physical, almost sculptural relief. To its right, a teal field is densely populated with hand-placed dots in varying sizes — an organic, cellular patterning that recalls both Indigenous dot painting and the microscopic structures of coral or stone. Within this field, a gold-rimmed dark circle sits like an ancient eye watching from beneath the surface of the earth. Above, the painting transforms into movement and breath. Bold teal spirals sweep across the upper canvas with calligraphic confidence — single-stroke gestures that carry the energy of wind, water, or thought itself. Gold leaf spirals nest within these forms at the upper left and right corners, their crackled, luminous surfaces catching light and adding a quality of the sacred or the celestial. Dark serpentine lines weave through the spirals, suggesting living forms — a dragon, a vine, a current of energy threading through the sky. Between these two zones, diagonal sgraffito marks streak through the white ground like rain or falling light, and tendril-like branching forms creep upward along the left edge — roots reaching for the sky, or the mountain's own slow exhalation. Why the Title? I chose "The Mountain Dreams" because this painting began as a meditation on stillness and movement — on what happens in the space between what is solid and what is imagined. The mountain is the most grounded, immovable thing I know, and yet in this work it is not silent. It exhales spirals. It conjures gold from its own darkness. The title is an invitation to see the painting not as a landscape but as a state of mind: the moment where something ancient and still begins to dream itself into motion. Inspiration: This painting was born from a fascination with contrasts that coexist rather than compete — weight and weightlessness, earth and air, the textured and the fluid. I was drawn to the idea that the most grounded things in nature carry within them an invisible energy, and I wanted to make that energy visible. The gold leaf came from my love of Byzantine and Klimt-inspired ornamentation — the idea that light itself can be a material. The dot work emerged from a deep appreciation for Indigenous mark-making traditions where repetition becomes meditation. And the teal spirals arrived almost involuntarily, with the speed of wind, because the painting demanded release after all that patient, heavy building. 

Technique: The work is built in layers, each demanding a different pace and temperament. The acrylic base establishes the ground — a white canvas primed for contrast. The dark mountain form was constructed with thick impasto, applied with heavy brush to create physical relief that you can feel with your hand. The dot field was the most meditative phase: each dot placed individually, requiring patience and surrender to repetition. The gold leaf was pressed onto adhesive-prepared areas and burnished, its irregular edges left intentionally raw to preserve the material's organic character. The teal spirals were the final gesture — painted quickly, with loaded brush, in single confident strokes that could not be corrected. The sgraffito lines were scratched through still-wet paint, revealing the white ground beneath. This layering of slow and fast, controlled and gestural, is central to the painting's meaning: it is made the way the earth makes things — slowly, then all at once. I want the viewer to feel the weight first — to be grounded by the dark mass at the base, to sense its texture and solidity. And then I want them to be lifted. I want their eye to travel upward along the spirals, to find the gold, to feel the painting breathe. I want them to notice the dots and slow down. I want them to see that this is not chaos but choreography — that every mark has a reason, even when it looks wild. Most of all, I want them to feel the tension between stillness and motion, and to find that tension beautiful rather than uncomfortable. This painting taught me something while I was making it. It began as an experiment in texture — I simply wanted to build something heavy and see what happened. But as the layers accumulated, the painting began to ask for lightness, for air, for gold. It taught me that creation is a conversation, not a monologue. The mountain didn't stay a mountain; it became a dreamer. And in watching that transformation happen under my own hands, I recognised something about my own relationship to stillness and restlessness — the way I am always caught between wanting to be rooted and wanting to spiral upward.

Reem H. Sultan is an Abu Dhabi based contemporary painter whose richly textured abstract works explore the fluid intersections of femininity, inner strength, and organic movement. Through a masterfully layered use of oils, acrylics, and resin, she translates the complexities of human emotion into evocative compositions that invite deep introspection while balancing a unique sense of power and calm.

NOTE: The image shown is a close up image of the Painting. The 2nd image shows the full painting, with the following images showcasing closeups of the artwork, detailing the work done by the artist.

Painting is signed by the artist 

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