Scene from the Train Window 1960

Martiros Sarian made this watercolor, "Scene from the Train Window," with some serious on-the-go energy. The way the colors bleed and blend, it's like he was trying to catch a fleeting moment, a blur of shapes and hues whizzing past. The paint is super thin and transparent, like the landscape is just a memory fading into the paper. Look how the colors pool and layer – the purples of the sky bleeding into the ochre of the land. There is a sense of immediacy, where the brushstrokes feel spontaneous, almost like a sketch, but there is a definite structure to the composition. There’s this one little patch of dark blue trees in the foreground, almost like an afterthought, but it anchors the whole scene. Sarian shares some DNA with artists like Emil Nolde, who weren't afraid to let color do the talking, and who also used color to create a sense of place, emotion and memory. With this work, Sarian reminds us that art isn't about perfect replication, it's about capturing a feeling, a mood, a slice of life as it zips by.