The Holiest Thang La 1939

Nicholas Roerich gave us "The Holiest Thang La" in oil paint with its smooth surface, so methodical. I imagine him layering these colours, building up the peaks, each stroke so assured. There's something serene but also a bit imposing about it. I'm thinking that Roerich might have felt pretty small in the face of that landscape and the immensity of the Himalayas. The way the white mountain range meets the blue sky is so clean, so precise. And then you see the flowing river that winds into the distance, reflecting the sky, almost as if it is flowing into infinity. He could have been thinking about the sublime and humanity's place in the grand scheme of things, like, what are we? Roerich's got this incredible command of colour; I see Rothko in that layering, a similar pursuit of the spiritual through pure visual sensation. It reminds me that all painters are in conversation, drawing from the same well of human experience. Each artist tries to capture a bit of the ineffable.