Cool Blue 36" x 36"

 See more paintings from the Floating Color Collection.

James Nowak’s Cool Blue, part of his Floating Color Collection, centers on the calming and expansive presence of a large blue square amidst a constellation of verticals and horizontals. While the collection consistently explores the tension between floating forms and structural balance, Cool Blue is distinct for the way it gives prominence to blue as both color and concept—an embodiment of openness, serenity, and stability.

The composition is anchored by the dominant blue square in the lower center-right, a geometric mass that immediately commands attention. Around it, a series of bars and rectangles create rhythm and counterbalance:

• A red vertical on the left introduces warmth and contrast.
• An orange vertical on the right extends upward, echoing the red but with heightened vibrancy.
• A teal horizontal at the top adds freshness while connecting across space.
• A bold black horizontal just beneath it introduces weight and seriousness, cutting across the lightness of the upper half.

Together, these forms frame the blue square, not confining it but emphasizing its presence as the visual and emotional center of gravity. The arrangement suggests both architectural scaffolding and a kind of abstract theater in which blue plays the central role.

Blue is the title and essence of the work. Unlike the red of The Power of Red, which dominates with intensity, the blue here asserts itself through calm, depth, and quiet authority. Its scale makes it central, but its emotional resonance makes it transcendent. Blue is often associated with the sky, the sea, openness, and contemplation—qualities that Nowak channels into this work.

The “coolness” of blue is heightened by its juxtaposition with warmer hues—red and orange—creating dynamic contrast. This interplay emphasizes blue not only as a color but as a state of being: stable, grounding, reflective.

Nowak’s palette in Cool Blue is bold yet balanced:

• Blue: central, expansive, meditative.
• Red: passionate, upright, offering energy and tension.
• Orange: vibrant, ascending, echoing vitality and warmth.
• Teal: refreshing, bridging cool and warm tones.
• Black: grounding, solemn, and stabilizing.

The flat, unmodulated color fields ensure clarity and directness, while their arrangement within the white field enhances the sense of floating suspension.

As in the larger Floating Color Collection, the forms hover within a vast white background, untethered to any horizon or perspective. The black bar introduces a grounding element, but the overall impression remains buoyant—like fragments of color drifting in air.

The blue square in particular, while weighty, does not sink. Instead, it floats with authority, transforming heaviness into calm presence. This paradox—weight that feels weightless—is central to the painting’s intrigue.

Emotionally, Cool Blue radiates calmness but not passivity. The red and orange verticals infuse energy, suggesting that tranquility is always in dialogue with intensity. The black horizontal hints at seriousness, even gravity, while teal adds a refreshing note of renewal.

Symbolically, the painting can be read as a meditation on balance: serenity (blue) achieved not in isolation, but in the presence of passion, vitality, and weight. Blue becomes the anchor that holds competing energies together, transforming tension into harmony.

Cool Blue resonates with the history of geometric abstraction—from Mondrian’s grids to Ellsworth Kelly’s color fields. However, Nowak’s approach departs from strict formalism, embracing asymmetry and relational play. The floating effect recalls Matisse’s late cut-outs, where forms danced freely across the page, while the emotional resonance of color aligns with the spiritual aspirations of Rothko and Newman.

In Cool Blue, abstraction becomes not only formal exploration but philosophical reflection, using color to evoke states of being.

James Nowak’s Cool Blue is a meditation on serenity within tension, presence within openness. The central blue square commands without overwhelming, embodying stability and calm against a field of contrasting forces. Through its floating geometry, bold palette, and carefully orchestrated relationships, the painting transforms abstraction into metaphor—reminding viewers that tranquility is never static, but always a dynamic balance of energies.