Kangchenjunga 1937

Nicholas Roerich made this dreamy landscape, Kangchenjunga, with tempera. I can see the painting coming into being, shifting and emerging through trial, error, and intuition, just like when I’m in the studio. I sympathize with Roerich, imagining what it might have been like to create these majestic mountains. What was he thinking? The colors, the texture! They shape our experience of the painting. That big, strong stroke on the right—it’s not just a mountain, it’s a feeling, an intention, a meaning. You know, artists are always talking to each other across time, inspiring each other. Painting is like an ongoing conversation, a way of expressing what we can’t always put into words. It embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for lots of different interpretations.