Thoughts 1907

Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis made ‘Thoughts’ with pastel, and what strikes me is how he’s not afraid to let the process show. You can see the marks, the building up of color, the texture of the pastel itself. It’s like he's saying, "Here's how it's made, folks!" Looking closely, the physicality of the medium is key. The rough texture gives the piece this raw, dreamlike quality. Notice the top boat. See how the yellow-orange kind of crumbles into the blue around it? It's not about blending perfectly; it's about the energy of the mark, the way the color vibrates against its neighbor. It reminds me of Odilon Redon’s pastels, where color and form dissolve into something mysterious. Ultimately, art is a conversation and there’s no right or wrong answer. It's about the process, the feeling, the ambiguity. Ciurlionis invites us to embrace the uncertainty.