Armenian Mountains 1962

Martiros Sarian made this drawing of the Armenian Mountains at an unknown date, using what looks like graphite and maybe a touch of colored pencil on paper. The marks here are very gestural, rapid and loose, they really capture a sense of movement and energy. I love how the mountains are rendered with these quick, scribbled lines that create a sense of texture and form, it's almost like you can feel the roughness of the rock. Then, look at how the artist uses short, broken strokes to depict the shadows and vegetation in the foreground, those little trees, they almost look windswept. There’s something so immediate and honest about Sarian's drawing, like he’s trying to capture the essence of the landscape rather than create a photographic representation. It's kind of like Cezanne's approach to landscape in a way; both artists use simplified forms and expressive mark-making to convey the feeling of a place. For Sarian, I'd wager Armenia wasn’t just a location, it was a feeling.