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-drawn contours imbue it with an organic softness that resists rigidity. This balance between precision and spontaneity is a hallmark of Nowak’s practice, lending the piece both serenity and vitality.

The title Rising River anchors interpretation in natural imagery. The vertical orientation of the bands can be read as water swelling upward, perhaps referencing the seasonal floods of rivers or the inexorable rise of tides. The movement suggested by the wavering contours resists stillness, implying growth, pressure, and transformation.

Color choice deepens the metaphorical dimension. The juxtaposition of warm (red, yellow) and cool (blue, aqua, teal) tones mirrors the elemental tensions in nature—fire and water, heat and coolness, energy and calm. The black band, positioned near the center, might be read as a void or grounding presence, a reminder of depth or even danger within otherwise vibrant currents.

As part of the Flowing Color collection, Rising River participates in a larger investigation of how color, shape, and rhythm can mimic natural phenomena without direct representation. Nowak’s work in this series foregrounds motion—flowing, bending, colliding—while resisting narrative. The river metaphor here operates less as a depiction of water and more as a conceptual framework for exploring continuity, disruption, and harmony.

Critically, Rising River can be understood as a meditation on change and persistence. The flowing bands suggest temporality and impermanence—nothing in the composition is fixed, yet the colors hold their space with stability. This tension reflects the dual nature of rivers: constantly shifting yet enduring as a presence across time.

Rising River is a work of abstraction that succeeds in being both visually striking and thematically evocative. Through its interplay of vibrant color, sinuous form, and metaphorical suggestion, James Nowak offers not a literal depiction of a river, but an experience of its essence—its rhythm, its dynamism, its quiet power to rise and transform. Within the Flowing Color collection, the piece stands as a lyrical exploration of how abstraction can mirror the natural world’s ceaseless movement while speaking to deeper human reflections on change, continuity, and harmony.