Štubnianske Teplice 1934 - 1935

Mikuláš Galanda made this watercolour, called Štubnianske Teplice, on paper. Look at the way Galanda's laid down these simple, transparent washes of colour. The marks feel speedy and intuitive, like he's figuring out the landscape in front of him as he goes. There's this beautiful contrast between the cool blues of the mountains and sky, and the warm yellows and reds of the fields below. Everything's built up from layers of colour, so even the shadows feel light and airy. See that little cluster of trees, how he's used these dark strokes to create the sense of depth and texture? And those birds up there? They look like a musical notation. For me, the whole piece is like a visual score, translating the rhythms and harmonies of nature into a language of colour and form. Galandra reminds me of Emil Nolde, another colourist who translated emotion through landscape painting. Like Nolde, Galanda embraces the expressive potential of colour, proving that a painting doesn't need to be precise to be true.