Tulola 1918

Nicholas Roerich made this painting, Tulola, with what looks like a love of blue and green. You can almost see him trying to figure out how to capture the bigness of the landscape with the smallest number of brushstrokes, right? I can imagine Roerich standing in the landscape, squinting in the sun, thinking about color and the way the light makes the hills fade into the distance. Look at how the paint sits on the canvas, thin and almost translucent in some areas, like the sky. It is heavier and more opaque in the foreground. The layering of these tones and textures creates depth and atmosphere, like he’s inviting us to walk into the scene. Roerich was into the spiritual, and you can sense that in his feeling for nature. Artists are always in conversation, and that conversation happens across time and place, in our heads and in our hearts.