Mount Ararat 1946

Martiros Sarian painted this landscape of Mount Ararat with oil on canvas sometime in the early to mid 20th century. Look at how he’s used color. It’s not about matching what he saw exactly. Instead, it's more like an emotional weather report rendered in paint. Sarian applies colors in flat planes with clear edges. You can really see the brushstrokes. The paint isn’t trying to hide what it is, it’s literally a skin of color on the canvas. Take the green hills in the middle ground. Notice how the light is described by a stroke of white, not blended in, but sitting on the surface? Everything feels immediate and present. It’s like he wants you to feel the physicality of the paint itself. It makes you conscious of the choices he made. I’m reminded of Milton Avery, another painter who loved to use color in simple, powerful ways. Like Avery, Sarian isn't interested in illusion. He's interested in painting as a way of seeing and feeling the world.