Reflections 36" x 48"

See more paintings from The Colors of Joy collection.

James Nowak's Reflections, part of The Colors of Joy Collection, is a luminous exploration of color, memory, and perception. Through abstraction, Nowak transforms the act of reflection—both visual and emotional—into a dynamic interplay of color and form. The work resists literalism, instead embodying the shifting qualities of thought, light, and experience that reflections suggest.

The composition is alive with vibrant contrasts: turquoise and sky-blue form the dominant field, punctuated by energetic bursts of yellow, orange, red, green, pink, and deep indigo. The brushwork is gestural, vigorous, and layered, with strokes that overlap and dissolve into one another, evoking ripples or fragments of mirrored surfaces.

The absence of a single focal point reflects the painting’s theme: just as reflections are multiple and mutable, the viewer’s eye is invited to move restlessly across the canvas. The result is a dynamic, non-linear rhythm that mimics the act of seeing and remembering.

Color here functions as both sensory and metaphorical language. The yellows and oranges radiate brightness, evoking sparks of illumination or fleeting clarity within reflection. The cooler blues and turquoises ground the composition, conjuring water, sky, or even the mental calmness associated with contemplation. Meanwhile, the reds and pinks introduce emotional intensity, suggesting that reflection is not purely rational but infused with feeling and memory.

Together, the palette sees joy as layered rather than singular—bright but not simplistic, vibrant yet nuanced.

The title Reflections invites multiple readings. It can be interpreted literally as a play of light on water, with colors mirrored and refracted. It can also be read psychologically, as a metaphor for inner thought—how memory fragments, overlaps, and reshapes itself in the act of recall.

By abstracting these ideas, Nowak allows the painting to remain open-ended. It does not dictate what is being reflected but instead emphasizes the process of reflection itself: shifting, unstable, yet always radiant with potential insight.

James Nowak’s Reflections is a compelling meditation on perception, memory, and light. Its sweeping brushstrokes and radiant palette capture the essence of reflection not as a static image but as a living, shifting process. Within The Colors of Joy Collection, it stands as an affirmation that joy can be found in the act of looking itself—in the interplay of light and color, thought and memory, surface and depth.

Ultimately, Reflections is both a visual and conceptual experience: a reminder that joy, like reflection, is not singular but layered, fleeting, and always evolving.