Land of snow people 1947

Nicholas Roerich painted 'Land of Snow People' with what looks like tempera or gouache, sometime before 1947. I just love these blue mountains fading into a light green sky. There's a misty haze effect that’s created with flat planes of color, like stage scenery. I can just imagine Roerich layering those colours on, one after the other, maybe squinting to get the tonal values just right. I wonder if he was thinking about the symbolic power of mountains, their kind of solid presence in contrast with their ephemeral peaks. The way the light hits those peaks. The dark shades, like a graphic novel. That lower mountain, right up front, that’s where Roerich really goes for it. He just carves those facets out with dark blue. You can see the confidence in that gesture, the joy in making a mark that defines a whole landscape. Painters are always in conversation with each other, across centuries, each of us trying to make sense of the world, one brushstroke at a time.