Sketch for Ladoga series 1918

Nicholas Roerich made this sketch for the Ladoga series with what looks like thin paint, maybe tempera, it's hard to tell. I’m imagining Roerich, standing in the landscape, and I wonder what he thought he was doing? Was he trying to capture the view? Or was he after something else? I wonder if the muted palette of greys and pinks hints at a melancholy mood, or maybe the scene really looked like that. There are horizontal bands of color, laid down one after the other, with blurry edges where the light seems to fade towards the horizon. The marks are quietly gestural and convey a sense of peace. I find myself searching for moments of definition in the undulating forms of the hills and sky. Roerich was part of a broad movement of artists exploring spirituality. It's funny how paintings always seem to be in conversation with each other; this one reminds me of Agnes Martin’s horizontal stripes of color. They are obviously very different artists, but there’s a similar interest in the sublime. It reminds us that painting is a language, and painters are always learning from one another!