Rising River, 36" x 48"

See more paintings from the Flowing Color Collection James Nowak’s Rising River, part of the Flowing Color collection, exemplifies the artist’s commitment to exploring abstraction through rhythm, balance, and chromatic interplay. The work presents a series of undulating vertical bands of color—black, red-orange, aqua, teal, and yellow—set against a blue field. At once organic and structured, the composition suggests both natural processes and the human act of translating movement into visual form. The painting is defined by five irregular, sinuous bands that traverse the canvas from top to bottom. Their fluid, wave-like edges evoke the currents of a river, aligning with the title. The palette is bold and elemental: the contrast between primary-like hues (blue, yellow, red-orange) and the grounding presence of black and teal creates a dynamic equilibrium. The flat application of color and absence of shading situate the piece within a tradition of hard-edge abstraction, yet the hand-dra