This is a painting by me, in oils on canvas, measuring 1.40cm x 1.60cm). It’s a copy of a work called “Remember,” painted in 1924 by Russian artist, writer, traveller and spiritual guru Nicholas Roerich (1874-1947).
The original painting made a great impression on me when I came across it on the cover of a book by Reshad Feild (The Invisible Way, Element Books, 1979) about one man’s (Sufi) spiritual journey. For me, both the book and the painting struck poignant chords, expressing the loneliness of the spiritual search against the vastness of the world, and the pain of leaving all that is safe and familiar in order to go off on this very search. Later, I transferred this theme from its original setting in the Himalayas, to one that I had become familiar with myself: the Middle East!
Here is Roerich’s painting. Rather more powerful and more graphic in its drawn style than mine, perhaps.
And this is my more recent, Sinai-inspired interpretation of the same theme – also oil on canvas (60cm x 80cm)…..
