Lewis and Clark Meeting Indians at Ross' Hole 1912

This landscape scene by Charles M. Russell is brushed with earthy browns and sky blues, punctuated by the figures of men and horses, all caught in the moment of encounter. I like to imagine Russell out there in the fields, squinting at the light, trying to capture the vastness. I wonder, was he thinking about scale, about how to make the sky feel endless? It feels like he’s layering the paint thinly to keep that sense of airiness. Look at how a single stroke can define the tension in a horse's leg, or the ripple of its muscles. You can almost feel the anticipation in the air, and the meeting of two worlds on this textured surface. It makes me think about other artists who've tried to paint a moment in time. It’s like all of us painters are just trying to figure it out, to capture something real.