Mountain Lake 1917

Nicholas Roerich painted “Mountain Lake” with oil on canvas. It looks like he built up the image with flat planes of blue, white, green, and gray. It's a scene but it’s also like an experiment in colour – Roerich’s mountain lake is not exactly how a mountain lake looks, but how it feels to the painter. The colours are intense and layered, like memories piling up over time. You can see him, right? Squinting at the scene before him, but also consulting the scene inside him. I love how the artist let himself be guided by the materiality of paint, its capacity to evoke specific feelings and thoughts. Artists like Roerich, and all of us really, are in an ongoing exchange, inspiring each other’s creativity across time. We embrace uncertainty and keep the conversation going, always open to new interpretations.