Lake in the mountains 1962

This is Martiros Sarian’s ‘Lake in the Mountains’ made with pencil in 1962. I love the energy in his mark making; it's like he’s trying to capture the feeling of being in that landscape more than a literal representation of it. You can really see the hand of the artist here, every stroke is visible and contributes to the overall texture, it's all about the process. Look closely at the marks he makes to create the cloudy sky. They are tight and dense, made with a sharp, maybe hard pencil that contrasts with the looser, more gestural lines in the foreground. Sarian's work reminds me a bit of Cezanne, that same interest in breaking down what he sees into basic forms, then rebuilding them on the page. And like Cezanne, Sarian isn’t so concerned with perfection; he's interested in the act of seeing, the act of making. Art is a journey, a conversation that goes on and on.