Beyond the seas there are the great lands 1910

Nicholas Roerich made this painting, Beyond the Seas There are Great Lands, with thin layers of paint almost like watercolor, building up to a vision of somewhere ancient and far away. The colors are muted, like a memory, with blues and browns that seem to blend into each other, and soft touches of warm sunset colors. The surface is almost translucent, which gives the whole thing a dreamy quality. Look at the rocks on the beach. Each one is just a little daub of paint, but together they create a whole landscape. It's like he's showing us how the world is made up of simple marks. And then there's that figure, looking out at the horizon. She’s part of the landscape too, but also seems to stand apart. Roerich reminds me of Hilma af Klint, both artists looking beyond the visible world to connect with something bigger than themselves. For them, art was about exploring unseen realms, an ongoing quest for meaning, not just about making a pretty picture.