Ecstasy 1918

Nicholas Roerich made this painting called "Ecstasy," and what a title, huh? Just looking at the mountains, you can tell the artist was feeling something intense, a kind of mystical charge in nature. The blues and purples are not just colors but emotional weather. I can almost feel Roerich layering the paint, trying to capture something that's both solid and ethereal. It reminds me of my own struggle with paint, trying to pin down a feeling, a thought that keeps slipping away. There’s this vertical thrust in the center, like a figure pushing upwards. Is it aspiration, reaching for something beyond? Roerich’s work has always struck me as an interesting bridge, kind of like Munch meets Kandinsky. He was part of a generation of artists all wrestling with how to express interior states, those tricky feelings, through the physical act of painting. Artists, we’re all in this ongoing conversation, trying to make sense of the world one brushstroke at a time.