Turiec 1934 - 1935

Mikuláš Galanda painted "Turiec" with watercolor on paper. It is a soft landscape of rolling hills and haystacks. I can almost feel him out there with his paper and brush, trying to capture this scene. The light is watery and washed out, but his black outlines are strong, like he's trying to hold onto the shapes he sees, pin them down. I can imagine the artist feeling something similar to what I feel when facing a blank canvas: the hope of finding form, discovering something new. The way he painted those clouds, with a nervous, wiggly outline, reminds me of the clouds in a Marsden Hartley painting. Artists are always looking at each other, borrowing, stealing, and transforming. It makes me feel part of a big, ongoing conversation. Like we’re all just trying to figure out how to make sense of the world, one brushstroke at a time.