Orpheus 1904

This is Martiros Sarian's "Orpheus" made in 1904. Look at those dark gestural marks against the blue watercolor washes. I imagine him outside, squinting, trying to capture the light flickering through those shadowy trees. Making a painting is like building a world, right? He’s building this dark world, and I see a figure there. It's like he's pulling figures out of the darkness. He’s layering, adding, and subtracting. The paint is thin, like he’s letting the image emerge slowly. And those dark strokes, they're not just lines, they're like feelings, you know? Quick decisions and actions, that maybe carry a thought, a fleeting, lived moment. I feel like I'm seeing him seeing. Artists are always in conversation with each other, across time. What a privilege to be part of that big, messy, beautiful conversation of painting. It's like, here’s Sarian, making marks, and those marks become something, something that we can look at and feel a connection to, even now.