Meet the artist behind these new Fourteener paintings inside DIA

For most Coloradans, the 10 hiking essentials include a first aid kit, a multi-tool and a down jacket. But for Mike Wilson, the essentials are more like watercolor, brushes and a canvas or two.

The Denver watercolorist began using the Centennial State as a source of artistic inspiration about four years ago, after painting Handies Peak, a fourteener near Silverton. The experience – the defining lines, the contrast with the horizon – inspired him to paint a few of his other favorite peaks, and soon he found himself with a mission to paint all 53 of the 14,000-foot mountains from Colorado.

After completing his collection, Wilson and his wife Jane donated the paintings to the Cottonwood Institute, a Denver-based nonprofit that connects middle and high school students with nature. The organization, in turn, worked with Denver International Airport to display prints of each painting in the Concourse A Bridge walkway. Wilson chose to donate his original paintings to the Cottonwood Institute after learning programming, and the nonprofit now sells prints of each painting online to help fund its work.

“I think everyone has a connection to one of the fourteen,” says Ford Church, founder and executive director of the Cottonwood Institute. A man bought a print he spotted at the airport because it was the peak where he proposed to his wife. Another buyer took home a print because it brought back fond memories of hiking fourteen years ago with his father.

As for the originals, Church is still unsure whether the institute will sell all of the watercolors or display the works at exhibitions throughout the state. Until then, however, the canvas reprints of the 53 paintings will remain on display in Hall A until September. We sat down with Mike Wilson and his wife Jane to learn more about the artist’s process.

Editor’s note: The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

5280: Are you a full-time artist or is painting a creative hobby?
Mike Wilson: I would call it a self-sustaining hobby. Anyone who paints as much as I do has a lot of paintings and it is very difficult to give them away. It seems like people don’t want art unless it’s priced in some way, which is fine with me. That pays for my materials, and those aren’t cheap.
Jane Wilson: Mike has always been an artist with a day job. He worked with Denver Water for years, but that meant he was outside all the time, never really stuck in a cubicle. I think that helped inspire his work.

Have you gone through all fourteen to paint them?
Mike: No, I’ve done maybe 10-15, but not all of them. It’s important to note that I painted them from a chosen perspective, that is, I looked at them through Google Earth to determine what angle I wanted to paint them from. Many peaks are difficult to view because either they are hidden behind other peaks, their best face is seen from another side, or you cannot see them from high enough to get a good look. Try to think about taking nice photos of people lying on their backs on the ground.

What is your favorite fourteener that you have climbed?
Mike: I climbed fourteeners when I was a bit younger, but I remember hiking Uncompahgre and Sneffels in the winter, which are quite fun to climb and descend. I also did Mt. Blue Sky by bike about 10 times now.

Is there a painting from this series that you are particularly proud of?
Mike: I really wanted to use Google Earth to make these mountains look good. They are like movie stars, they have a good side. Some of these mountains are not necessarily impressive in their own right. Let’s take Mount Bross as an example. It’s just a big chunk of dirt stuck next to other big chunks of dirt. Making it impressive is the work of an artist, and I’m proud of what I did with Bross. I had to highlight it and show the mountain in its best light.

You painted 53 mountain landscapes for this project. Has it ever been tiring?
Mike: Absolutely, I had a few tips to stay motivated. For example, we would send a bunch at Christmas as postcards, and our friends would ask me when I had finished the rest, which helped.
Joan: At one point, Mike had an exhibition of it at the Lafayette municipal art gallery, the Collective. As he was getting ready to do the show, he suddenly thought, “Oh my God. I forgot to paint Harvard. Casting no shadow on Mount Harvard, but he had completely forgotten.

Why did you decide to donate these paintings in the first place?
Joan: We wanted these paintings to benefit an organization whose goal is to get people out, but especially those who might not otherwise have the opportunity. We know of several cool organizations, but Cottonwood is one that came up with (a proposal) that really made sense. We wanted these funds to be entrusted to an organization that had the capacity and imagination to manage them.

Is there anything you hope people take away from these paintings?
Mike: I don’t know if there’s anything to learn from these paintings other than that Colorado is a beautiful place, but I hope people will be interested in the idea behind them and at the Cottonwood Institute. I also hope people will be interested in their different perspectives: many of them look even more rugged from above than when you look at them from a valley.
Joan: I’ve heard people passing through DIA say it’s like a welcome home to Colorado. Personally, I hope that people who live here will pass by and say, “Oh yeah, those are ours.” I also hope that people will want to cherish these mountains more. Many organizations work solely on the fourteen to protect public access and keep them safe. I want people who live here to remember that and the beauty of the mountains.