Titles for Paintings
November 2025
Naming a new painting is fun. Sometimes the titles are obvious and other times I have to search, or wait, for the painting to be named. Here are a few examples.
The painting “Charting Seafloor Mountains” took awhile to name. The painting is mountainous, but felt oceanic at the same time. A course book from college, Understanding Earth, Second Edition by Frank Press and Raymond Siever, is one of my favorites. As I flipped through pages, I knew I was getting close in the chapter “The Oceans”. A colorful map on page 422-423 shows the topography of the seafloor with satellite photographs. The colors, the depth, and shapes were similar. Boom. There was the title “Charting Seafloor Mountains”.
At the time I made this painting in 2024 it was different from others. This piece felt quieter. The strokes were looser and not as layered. The contrast between the green grey and dark green was new. The soft pastel pink and blue felt unfinished, yet also felt like first casts of light in the sky at dawn. I felt a “valley” between the green grey silhouette in the foreground the implied ridge at the top. I sat with this painting for a long time.
Finally, I looked up quotes by John Muir. This was the first one I read:
“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn.”
Since I had already felt the valley and sunshine feelings…I knew the title would be “Good Tidings Valley”.
This painting "Ancient Sea at the Crest" was complete with no title for a few weeks. The aqua sky gave me beach vibes, but couldn’t find the best title. After a hike to the crest of the Sandia Mountains, the title was born.
The Sandia Mountains are mainly granite with areas of metamorphic rock, topped with sedimentary layers. The top layers were once a shallow ocean covering much of New Mexico. Marine fossils can be found at the top in the rock. The picture in the lower right displays crinoids in the limestone surface. I guess one can be a mountain and beach person in the same stop!
Titles for paintings come from everywhere- from a quote to an experience hiking on a trail. A little bit of patience goes a long way for the perfect title!