Mongolia 1927

Nicholas Roerich painted ‘Mongolia’ with a palette knife and what looks like blue oil paint. Imagine him there in Mongolia, in front of this vista, trying to get a handle on it. The mountains rise and recede, as do the clouds; it's all blues, layered on top of each other. It feels like the artist has been trying to capture the vastness of space and the feeling of being a small part of something much bigger. The paint is applied with a dry brush, in these little strokes, and you can sense Roerich’s struggle to capture the light and atmosphere. I imagine him scraping the paint around, then wiping it away, before starting again. He probably felt like he could never quite get it right, but that’s the beauty of painting, isn’t it? Like Agnes Martin, Roerich knew that painting could be a way to explore your inner landscape, but also to connect with the world around you. These painters are in conversation with each other, even if they don't know it.