Sun Worship in Montana 1907

Charles M. Russell’s watercolour, Sun Worship in Montana, is a delicate dance of light and shadow. The pigment is translucent, like watercolor always is, lending the scene an ethereal quality, as if this is a world half-seen, half-dreamed. Look closely at the figure's garments, you can see that the paint is layered, thin washes building up to create depth and texture. It's not about detail, exactly, but rather the feeling of detail. The artist captures the essence of fringed leather and beadwork without rendering every stitch. I guess it’s like, how do you paint the wind without painting the trees it’s moving? This sense of suggestion carries through to the broader composition, with fluid brushstrokes defining the land meeting the sky. It brings to mind the work of someone like John Singer Sargent, who also had a knack for capturing the fleeting effects of light and atmosphere with such immediacy. It's less about perfect representation, and more about the poetry of seeing.