Churlish 1918

Nicholas Roerich made "Churlish" and, looking at it, I’m suddenly inside that golden ochre room with him. The air is thick with the smell of pigments. I bet Roerich wasn't sure where this was going when he started. Maybe a little nervous. I get that feeling, looking at the person in the painting gingerly holding up the pot, the light flickering on the gold and brown hues. It’s like they’re saying, "Is this valuable or is this junk?" That’s what I ask myself when I’m in the studio, trying to figure out what I’m doing. Roerich seemed to be on a quest to capture the essence of a place, a moment, or even a legend. He’s part of a tradition—artists borrowing, stealing, riffing off each other across time. It’s less about answers and more about keeping the conversation going. Each brushstroke is a question, and every finished painting is an invitation to keep looking, keep feeling, keep thinking.