Mountains Overlooked: Y Llethr & Llyn Hywel - Welsh Mountain Painting

'Southward Relief' - Y Llethr & Llyn Hywel

There is a habit, in the mountains as much as anywhere else, of letting the biggest names take up all the oxygen.

In Wales, that often means the obvious peaks, the highest, the busiest, the one where you queue for the summit. Some are magnificent, of course, but the highest mountains are not always the best ones, and the most famous are not always the places that stay with us longest.

Often it is the opposite.

For me it is the quieter places that appeal, the more remote places, the ones where you barely see another soul. Often it is the journey, the difficulty getting there, that fuels the sense of achievement, that leave the deepest mark. The ones with more character than fame, they ask a little more of you and in return fill your cup to the brim with satisfaction.

These are often the places that stay.

Why the overlooked mountains matter

There is a pleasure in reaching a less celebrated place and finding yourself almost alone there. That moment is unique to your visit, the light shifting, the weather, the view, the effort, all yours to savour and for that moment yours alone.

That feeling matters.

It is one of the reasons I am drawn to painting mountains that may not dominate the usual conversation. The quieter places often carry a stronger sense of discovery, intimacy and hard-won connection. They can be sterner, stranger, and more memorable than the obvious giants.

That is part of what sits behind Southward Relief, my painting of Y Llethr & Llyn Hywel in the Rhinogydd, Eryri.

Y Llethr & Llyn Hywel and the Rhinogydd

Llyn Hywel looking over to Rhinog Fach (a different view taken on my race artist in residency 2025)

Y Llethr & Llyn Hywel is not one of the headline locations that dominates postcards but it is a quiet place of extreme beauty. It sits in the Rhinogydd, a part of Eryri known for being rougher, quieter and slower-going than many of the better-known mountain areas.

That roughness is part of its appeal.

This is not just a pretty lake with a nice view. It belongs to a more rugged mountain landscape — one with texture, route-finding, steepness and a stronger sense of earned arrival.

The story behind Southward Relief

I painted Southward Relief in 2021 after the Dragon’s Back Race, the year I finished second female. The title plays on two meanings at once: the relief of heading south towards camp at the end of a hard day, and relief in the landscape sense — the physical form and structure of the land itself.

That double meaning felt right because the moment itself was double-edged too.

There was fatigue in it, certainly, but also direction. A way home. The strange combination, familiar to runners and walkers alike, of weariness and clarity. You may be spent, but the task has simplified: keep moving, keep pushing, follow the line in front of you.

That is what I wanted the painting to hold.

It was all worth it in the end! (2nd Female 2021).

Why this painting is expressive rather than descriptive

This is not a studio painting trying to pin every detail down with clinical neatness. It is more expressive.

The brushwork is active. Forms move. There is a sense, I hope, of motion as though fatigue has blurred the edges while the essential route ahead still remains clear. That felt truer to the experience.

One of the things I value in more impressionistic landscape painting is that it leaves space for the viewer to participate. The painting does not do all the work for them. The mind completes it. Each person brings their own clarity, memory and associations to what they see.

That seems especially right for mountains.

A place like this is never only topography. It is also effort, solitude, weather, timing, mood, and your unique experience and memories.

Welsh mountain paintings do not need to begin with the obvious peaks

The famous summits rarely need help being noticed. The quieter mountains do.

They often offer more character, more solitude and more personal connection than the big-name peaks that dominate postcards, bucket lists and casual conversations. That is as true in the hills, as it is in art.

If you stop and look more carefully, some of the quieter paintings may be the ones with more atmosphere, more depth and more to return to over time.

That is why I think mountain paintings do not need to begin and end with the most famous summits. Some of the best mountain landscapes are the ones people talk about less. Some of the most meaningful paintings may come from those places too.

Southward Relief is one of those works for me.

It is available as an original painting and as a limited edition print.

You can view Southward Relief here

Or you can browse the wider Welsh Mountains collection here

And if there is a lesser-known mountain, fell or place that has stayed with you most, I’d genuinely love to hear which one it is.

See you on the tops,

Elaine