On first looking at Andree Wallin’s “Mountain Tops” painting, I feel a sense of being drawn upward in space. I am getting an eye level view of some very high mountains, without the labor of climbing and the health risk of altitude sickness. Wait a minute, maybe I am feeling a bit of altitude sickness! No, it is just fear of heights from looking down on those clouds.
The dark foreground and the bright sky in the back which I take to represent the “future” appeal to me. But my eyes continually return to the clouds in that high valley. What a wonderful place for adventure would be in that mist. Is it Shangra La or Brigadoon? I do not care for the summit so much, but I adore the mist. I want to go there.
The mountains, the clouds and the blue sky are just a backdrop for the misty valley. The shadows on the mountains have no appeal. The darkness of those mountains overpower the shadows and  even the darkness of the rain filled clouds. There is no storm or tumult in this painting.  There is no peace or solitude either, just the intense longing for a Shangra La.
I can hear Bloody Mary singing “Come away” from “Bali H’ai”. Can you hear it?

The softness of the mist in that valley cancels the rough and ragged mountain tops. I am drawn to the obscure and gloaming valley. Yes, it is twilight or just before twilight, and not daybreak, folding this scene in its embrace.

I do not expect to find heather growing in that valley. What appears to be trees on the mountain on the right side must be glacial rocks. Oh, no, it is global warming. It is much too high for flora or fauna. Yet, I can go there. I, and only I, will inhabit that magical valley, and I will not be lonely because the mist is a living force that will cradle me in its arms.
Now, I can find this place inside me. I have a misty valley surrounded by high, eroded, and unascendable mountain peaks
in me. I am untouchable. I am invincible. I am in control of my destiny. Rats, no, I am not.

The artist completed this painting in six or seven hours, and I have worked a lifetime and I am still not there. Good job, Andree.