Glorious Brush Strokes

 

James Nowak’s Glorious Brush Strokes series—an evocative collection where spontaneous energy meets intentional design.

Glorious Brush Strokes introduces the white of the canvas into the compositions, with a nod to Jackson Pollock’s gestural freedom. This suggests a deliberate embrace of raw brushwork—a celebration of visible painterly action that contrasts with some of Nowak’s more geometric and color-focused series.

These paintings emphasize sweeping, expressive strokes where the texture, direction, and rhythm of each brush gesture contribute to the emotional impact. The exposed white canvas serves to heighten contrast and airiness—providing "breathing room" that draws attention to the movement itself.

Though not dripping paint like Pollock, Nowak’s inclusion of Pollock-like spontaneity points to expressive abstraction and an emphasis on the act of painting. Across his work, Nowak embraces color as a symphonic medium, influenced by Josef Albers’ teachings and his own background in painting and photography. His philosophy appears to evolve—where structured color meets free-form gestures. This creates a dialogue between two artistic impulses: the composed and cerebral (with deliberate shapes and chromatic clarity) and the intuitive and visceral (where the brushstroke speaks of emotion and movement).

Inspired by Pollock’s spontaneity, the brush strokes are free and bold—less about control and more about conveying raw movement and emotional momentum. The strokes are saturated and vibrant, offering a striking interplay of hues against the calm of the canvas’s white space. The resulting effect is one of kinetic energy poised within an organized silence.

Glorious Brush Strokes feels like an invitation—to witness the joy of painting in motion. It’s a vibrant interplay of color, gesture, and space—where the act of creation becomes the content itself. The series strikes a poetic balance between painterly impulse and thoughtful design, encouraging viewers to experience painting as both performance and vision.