Fireworks, 24" x 36"

See more paintings at the Glorious Brushstrokes Collection.

James Nowak’s Fireworks from the Glorious Brushstrokes Collection is a striking example of contemporary abstract expressionism. The work employs explosive colors, layered brushwork, and an unrestrained energy that mirrors the celebratory yet fleeting brilliance of its namesake. While the piece resists representational boundaries, it communicates a visceral experience—an embodiment of motion, spontaneity, and joy.

At first glance, Fireworks captivates through its color palette: saturated blues, fiery reds, luminous yellows, and electric greens. These hues are applied in broad, confident strokes, creating a sense of dynamism and unpredictability. The blue strokes, deep and anchoring, serve as structural pathways, while the yellows and reds punctuate the composition with bursts of warmth and intensity. The layering of paint, particularly where colors overlap and bleed into one another, echoes the ephemeral sparks of fireworks in the night sky.

The brushwork is gestural and forceful, suggesting physicality in the act of painting. Each stroke feels deliberate yet free, a balancing act between control and release. The brushstrokes are not only compositional but also expressive of Nowak’s presence—traces of movement, rhythm, and impulse.

The title Fireworks is crucial to interpretation. Much like the spectacle of pyrotechnics, the painting thrives on contrast: dark against light, cool against warm, emptiness against saturation. This creates a sense of impermanence, the fleeting yet unforgettable intensity of an explosion of light.

Beyond literal reference, the work can be read as a metaphor for human emotion. The fiery reds may signify passion and vitality; the yellows, joy and optimism; the cooler blues and greens, balance and grounding. In this interplay of hues, Nowak captures the contradictions inherent in emotional experience—moments of brilliance, turbulence, and calm coexisting in a single frame.

Within the Glorious Brushstrokes Collection, Fireworks embodies the essence of liberation through gesture and chromatic boldness. The collection celebrates the act of painting as both a physical and emotional endeavor, and Fireworks stands as one of its most energetic manifestations.

From a critical standpoint, Fireworks succeeds in merging spontaneity with structure. While some may argue that its lack of figurative subject matter limits its accessibility, this abstraction invites personal interpretation. Its strength lies in its refusal to dictate meaning—leaving viewers to experience their own "explosions" of feeling. The piece thus embodies a democratic ethos: art as a shared emotional event rather than a fixed narrative.

Fireworks is a celebration of color, motion, and impermanence. James Nowak’s bold gestures and luminous palette evoke the fleeting intensity of fireworks, while also offering a metaphor for the beauty and fragility of human experience. Positioned within the Glorious Brushstrokes Collection, it reaffirms the expressive power of abstraction to capture not just what we see, but what we feel.