The Roháče Mountains 1933

Arnold Peter Weisz-Kubínčan made this landscape of The Roháče Mountains with pastel. Look at how the strokes are laid down, almost haphazardly, but somehow they build up into something solid. It's like he's feeling his way through the scene, letting the colors guide him. The texture is everything here. You can almost feel the roughness of the pastel on the paper, a kind of direct, unfiltered expression. The blues and greens fight with each other across the surface, creating a sense of depth and distance. Then there's that flash of yellow in the upper left. It's like a burst of energy, a reminder that even in the most rugged landscapes, there's always light. This piece reminds me of Marsden Hartley, another artist who wasn't afraid to get down and dirty with his materials. Both artists let the process be visible, even celebrated. And isn't that what art is all about? Embracing the messy, the imperfect, the unresolved.