Tent Mountain 1933

Nicholas Roerich made "Tent Mountain" with paint on canvas; he's really going for it with these big forms. I love how the colours bleed into each other, like the mountains are exhaling. There's a real sense of process here, of the paint being dragged and layered. The surface is alive with texture, from the smooth, almost translucent sky to the rough, jagged peaks. Look at the way he's used these hot pinks and purples, against cooler blues and greens. It's almost psychedelic, a dreamscape. And that little cluster of buildings perched on the mountain, that's so cool. It reminds me of Arthur Dove, another artist who was interested in the spiritual power of landscape. Roerich isn't trying to give you a photo-realistic view, he's after something deeper, a feeling, a vibration. Art is a verb, you know?