Nag Lake. Kashmir. 1937

Nicholas Roerich painted Nag Lake, Kashmir with what looks like tempera, maybe, or gouache—something matte and earthy. He's laid down the most delicious blues, from an almost turquoise lake to inky indigo mountains. The way the colours are built up in layers makes me think about printmaking, actually. I can imagine Roerich, standing in the cold, painting outside, trying to capture the light as it changes. The thing about painting nature is that it's always moving, right? Clouds, light, reflections... It’s all so fleeting. But maybe he wasn’t trying to represent a place at all. Maybe the landscape is just a vehicle for exploring something else, something internal. Like he’s turning feeling into form with his brushes and pigments. The way that Roerich describes a jagged peak with just a few strokes—there’s so much contained in that one gesture. It's an exchange across time and space, where one creative soul transmits something to another, even a century later.