Chud has gone under the ground 1913

"Chud has gone under the ground" by Nicholas Roerich is awash in blues and greens, giving it this deep, mythic quality. The marks look swiftly applied, like a stage set emerging from a dream. I imagine Roerich layering these shades, maybe starting with a thin wash and then building up the darker, more solid forms. Did he step back often, squinting, trying to find the right balance between representation and feeling? The texture seems smooth, almost like gouache or tempera, which allows the colors to sit on the surface, luminous. That upward sweeping movement, like a wave, is particularly evocative. I find myself thinking about other painters who were similarly drawn to landscapes imbued with spiritual meaning, like Hilma af Klint. Artists are always looking, borrowing, riffing on each other, reaching back into time and forward into the unknown. Painting is this ongoing conversation, where meaning shifts and transforms with each new voice.