On Kama 1919

Arkady Rylov made this painting, On Kama, with oils, and you can really see how he’s built up the sky with these broad strokes of turquoise, grey, and white. I can almost feel the give and take of the brush, the push and pull, as the painting came into being, shifting and emerging through trial and intuition. Imagine Rylov there, trying to capture this vastness, the feeling of the water stretching out to the horizon. The color of the waves are rendered in shades of brown, with white crests dynamically shaped to suggest movement. These gestures communicate the feeling and intention. It makes you feel the waves, right? Rylov's work here reminds me of other painters grappling with landscapes, like the Hudson River School, but with a uniquely Russian sensibility. Artists are always talking to each other across time, right? And, for me, painting is about embracing ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for endless interpretations, rather than fixed meanings.