Himalayas. Turquoise lake. 1936

Nicholas Roerich painted "Himalayas. Turquoise lake." with oil on canvas to summon the sublime. Look at how the painting is made; it's built with strong colors like gold, ultramarine, and raw sienna. I imagine Roerich standing at his easel, working fast, trying to keep up with the light as it shifts across the mountains. The paint is dragged and dabbed across the canvas to create a textured surface, like the rough, rocky terrain. The colors! They’re not just descriptive; they’re emotional. The way the gold sky presses down on the indigo mountains gives me this kind of claustrophobic feeling, but it is also uplifting. Roerich was super into mysticism and symbolism, and you can really see that here. It reminds me of other landscape painters like Lawren Harris or even some of the early Hudson River School guys, but with a totally different vibe. It’s like Roerich is trying to paint not just what he sees, but what he feels. The shapes are simplified and intensified, and his paintings are not just landscapes, but meditations on the power and mystery of nature. There is so much to learn from paintings like this.