Montu Mountain

Montu Mountain
Acrylic, 23 carat gold leaf and lapis lazuli on linen
36" x 48"
February 2017

My latest completed painting is Montu Mountain, and it is the 5th painting in my series The Netjeru In America.

Montu Mountain
Acrylic, 23 carat gold leaf, and lapis lazuli on linen
36" x 48"

A Kemetic landscape: a mountain beset within a crimson sky wherein the Netjeru Montu and His avatar BaAkh appear. Montu bestows blessings of His Akh and Sekhem as I meditate at the mountain base below. The mountain is irradiated with the power of Ra Himself.

The painting is primarily in acrylic, but features gold leaf gilding (there are 52 sekhems, 49 akhs and 151 sun discs). The wadjet eyes at the bottom of the painting are in lapis lazuli pigment.

Montu Mountain is in the Utah desert, sitting behind the Bonneville Salt Flats looking from the town of West Wendover which sits on the Nevada side of the Nevada / Utah border.  I visited there in 2015 when I met Ptahmassu and his husband Brent, and was overcome by the landscape there that resembled the landscape of Egypt where the pharaonic civilisation flourished so long ago.

The mountain ranges behind Bonneville Salt Flats
Photo credit: Ptahmassu

The West Wendover part of my trip was a highlight; here I got to finally meet Kemetic iconographer Ptahmassu who has become a friend and supporter of my work. I also met his equally charming husband who helped make the trip smooth by driving us everywhere and organising accommodation for me.

Montu Mountain is the outcrop on the right

Ptahmassu took the photo of me below as I meditated at the bottom of the mountain, and this has been reproduced in the painting. It is he that named the rocky outcrop Montu Mountain, and I certainly resonated with this when we went there.

The original photo of me meditating at the bottom of the mountain; the photo has however been reversed - you will note that the photo features a mirror image of the painting; actually, the painting is the way we saw it from where we had parked and walked up to it, but I was siting in the opposite direction which I reversed for the painting
Photo credit: Ptahmassu

This landscape is mystical and I would love to know more about it from the perspective of the Native Peoples of America. The area is also near a military installation, supposedly carrying out secret agenda according to conspiracy theorists. The day I visited a very loud sound erupted across the otherwise silent landscape that made me think a massive machine was being powered up.

Using my projector, I began the mountainscape on the canvas with the photo I took at its base

More projector fiddling

Early black-lining
Photo credit: Kitten

Montu Mountain detail: the divine Netjer BaAkh
Avatar of Montu
Bull of Medamud, Uaset, Armant and Tod

Montu Mountain detail: being blessed by the Akh and Sekhem of the Divine Netjer Montu
Lord Of Uaset
Lord Of Eternity
Ruler of Everlastingness
Lord Of The Army
Lord of Medamud, Tod, and Armant

Montu Mountain detail: The Divine Netjer Montu

Montu Mountain detail: Wadjet Eyes

Ptahmassu and I inside aircraft relic from WWII; the area has great historical significance to WWII - a fact not lost on me as I manifest a paiting of one of Kemet's most powerful war deities
Photo credit: Brenton, Ptahmassu's husband February 2015

On completion of Montu Mountain in my studio February 5th 2017
Photo credit: Kitten

***please note that the images of my painting are taken from my Android - professional images will come later and be published on my official website Setken