Kiss the Earth 1912

Nicholas Roerich made "Kiss the Earth" using what looks like watercolor, and it's all about process, about how the paint moves and settles. I love how Roerich isn't trying to trick us into thinking this is real. The colors are muted – earthy browns and tans – and the white is opaque. There's a stark, horizontal slash of white, bisecting the picture. Maybe it's a river or a snow-covered field, but it’s also just paint on paper. Look at the way the brown washes bleed into each other, like stains, and the scumbled texture in the foreground. It feels so immediate, like he's capturing a fleeting moment, a memory of a place. Roerich reminds me of someone like Agnes Martin, not in terms of style, but in their shared interest in the spiritual, the meditative quality of simple forms and colors. It’s not about what you see, but how you feel. It's about embracing ambiguity.