Izborsk. Towers. 1903

Nicholas Roerich made “Izborsk. Towers.” with oil paint and, looking at it, I can just imagine the act of painting itself – how the artwork came into being, shifting and emerging through trial, error, and intuition. I sympathize with Roerich and imagine what it might have been like to create this piece. What was he thinking when he made it? I wonder if he mixed his own colours. The paint is applied thickly here and these textural elements shape our experience of the painting and contribute to its intellectual resonances. That upward stroke on the left tower, for example, communicates something solid but vulnerable. Looking at this, I'm reminded of other artists, all in an ongoing conversation, in an exchange of ideas across time, inspiring one another’s creativity. Painting is a form of embodied expression which embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations and meaning over fixed readings.