By the sea 1904

Martiros Sarian made this watercolour, "By the Sea," sometime in the early 20th century, and it feels as though I could have made it myself. Just imagine Sarian with his brush, wet and loose with pigment, letting the watercolour spread and bloom on the page. It's a landscape but one that feels internalized, filtered through memory and feeling. The tree is like a big dark cloud, full of a million tiny marks. The sea is rendered in broad, horizontal strokes that ripple and flow. I love how the paint is so thin in places, allowing the white of the paper to breathe through, creating this sense of light and air. Sarian's not trying to copy what he sees, more like capture a mood, or a feeling of being in a place. You can see Sarian in conversation with other artists, like Matisse, who were also exploring color and form in their own ways. Painting is a form of conversation that has unfolded and evolved across generations, constantly enriching our vision.