Building the ships 1903

Nicholas Roerich's painting, Building the Ships, shows his process-oriented approach through earthy colors and visible brushstrokes. Roerich lays down color like he’s building the boats themselves: layer upon layer of browns and beiges. The texture! It’s rugged, immediate, and you can almost feel the weight of the wood. The artist doesn't try to hide the physical act of painting. Look at the way the paint clumps and drags, especially on the ships' hulls. It gives you this great sense of the real, hard work of construction. The strokes are like the adze of the shipwrights, roughly shaping the wooden planks. I like the unpretentiousness of the technique. Roerich feels like a conduit between Van Gogh and Marsden Hartley. His work embodies the belief that art is an ongoing conversation, with each artist contributing their voice. We're left with a sense of wonder at the human endeavor and the sheer beauty of labor.