By the sea 1908

Martiros Sarian’s scene, “By the Sea,” is a landscape of warm colors and expressive brushstrokes. Just imagine him, brush in hand, coaxing the mountains and sea into being with vibrant oranges and blues! I can almost feel the artist’s presence, standing before the canvas, making each mark with purpose and care. What was he thinking as he painted those striated hills and that sinuous sea? The texture looks smooth, but the painting is alive with emotion, the colors throbbing and rippling with life. Look at those vertical strokes cascading down the mountainside—they’re like musical notes on a page, each one adding to the harmony of the scene. This piece reminds me of early modernist painters, each searching for new ways of seeing, thinking, and experiencing the world, and the way the world imprints itself on us.