Two Blues 36" x 36"

See more paintings from the Floating Color Collection.

James Nowak’s Two Blues, part of his Floating Color Collection, is a meditation on harmony, contrast, and relational presence. By featuring two distinct shades of blue—a darker, central rectangle and a lighter, expansive bar at the bottom—the painting emphasizes both unity and difference. The composition becomes a dialogue between two expressions of the same color, showing how variation within a single hue can shape mood, structure, and balance.

The arrangement is anchored by the two blue forms:

• A dark blue rectangle in the center, compact, concentrated, and inwardly focused.
• A lighter blue bar stretching along the lower section, more expansive, open, and grounding.

Together, they establish a rhythm between solidity and openness. Around them, other verticals provide counterpoints: a red vertical on the left introduces warmth and tension; a green vertical on the right suggests renewal and balance. These flanking forms act as “pillars,” bracketing the dialogue between the blues.

The composition’s asymmetry gives it vitality. The blues never settle into perfect symmetry, but their spatial relationship creates visual balance—like two voices in conversation held within a larger architectural frame.

The duality of the blues is the painting’s conceptual core. Blue often signifies calm, reflection, and depth, but here Nowak explores its internal diversity:

• The dark blue suggests weight, seriousness, and introspection.
• The lighter blue conveys openness, expansiveness, and clarity.

Placed together, they evoke contrast without conflict—two modes of blue coexisting in harmony. This duality can be read metaphorically as a reflection on difference within sameness, or as a meditation on how variation enriches unity.

The palette is restrained yet effective:

• Dark and light blue: the central actors, creating harmony through variation.
• Red: an upright, passionate counterbalance, injecting vitality into the coolness of blue.
• Green: stabilizing, fresh, positioned opposite red to create chromatic equilibrium.
• White background: an open field that transforms the forms into floating presences rather than fixed structures.

The chromatic choices sharpen the relational qualities of the blues—making them more resonant by contrast with red’s warmth and green’s cool vibrancy.

As with the rest of the Floating Color Collection, the painting achieves buoyancy. The shapes appear to hover in the white field, weightless yet assertive. The dark blue rectangle feels anchored and dense, while the lighter blue bar expands horizontally, creating the sensation of breath or horizon.

This interplay between groundedness and openness deepens the work’s resonance: it suggests both structure and atmosphere, body and air, gravity and levity.

Emotionally, Two Blues conveys tranquility, balance, and dialogue. The darker blue invites contemplation, while the lighter blue radiates openness and optimism. Their coexistence suggests that calm is not singular but layered, with multiple shades of feeling contributing to the whole.

Symbolically, the painting may be read as a meditation on duality—two aspects of self, two modes of thought, or two expressions of experience. The surrounding red and green add tension and relief, making the blues’ harmony more profound.

Nowak’s Two Blues recalls the legacy of Mondrian and De Stijl in its reliance on geometry and primary contrasts, yet it departs from strict grid logic. The asymmetry, variation of scale, and floating effect give it greater openness. The focus on a single color in multiple registers also recalls Josef Albers’ Homage to the Square, though Nowak emphasizes relational tension between shapes rather than optical theory.

In spirit, Two Blues aligns with abstraction as a contemplative practice—geometry and color deployed not for decoration but for reflection on perception, balance, and coexistence.

James Nowak’s Two Blues elevates simplicity into meditation. By juxtaposing two registers of blue within a floating field, the painting demonstrates how color can express difference, harmony, and depth simultaneously. Through its interplay of structure and openness, tension and calm, it embodies the essence of the Floating Color Collection: buoyant abstraction that transforms geometry into a metaphor for balance in human experience.