Guru Guri Dhar 1931

Nicholas Roerich made this painting, Guru Guri Dhar, using a brush loaded with blues and whites, pulling and pushing the paint to create these staggering mountains. I can almost feel him there, Roerich, staring up at those peaks, trying to capture their solidity with just a few strokes. Look how the paint is applied thinly, almost like a watercolor, yet it conveys such monumental forms! It’s like he’s trying to paint the unpaintable. That sweeping gesture across the lower mountains—it's like he's saying, "Here is the earth, solid but shrouded, a base for the heavens." The more you look, the more those mountains feel like thoughts, dreams maybe, solidified on canvas. They remind me of Lawren Harris's mountain paintings, but with a mystic twist. Isn't it amazing how painters keep reaching for the same subjects, yet finding something new each time? We are all in this ongoing conversation and exchange of ideas across time, inspiring one another’s creativity. Roerich reminds us that painting isn't just about seeing, it’s about feeling and embodying the world.