Desert 1911

Martiros Sarian made this oil painting, Desert, with confident strokes of ochre, orange, and purple meeting a solid blue sky. Look how the brush carries each dune into being, layering light and shadow to conjure up the arid land. I can almost feel what it was like for Sarian to be there, to capture the quiet drama of the desert. The color palette feels both real and not real, as color always is! I love how the solid tree is a visual anchor, and how the tiny camel and rider suggest the painting is limitless. It kind of reminds me of Milton Avery’s paintings, which distill landscapes to their essence. Painters, you know, we're all in this ongoing conversation, building on what came before and pushing things forward. We're not just depicting the world but kinda reimagining it, one brushstroke at a time.