Delicate Spring III 24" x 24"

See more paintings at the Glorious Brushstrokes Collection.

Delicate Spring III is the third installment in James Nowak’s seasonal series within the 2025 New Works Collection. Continuing his meditation on renewal and transformation, this work deepens the exploration begun in Delicate Spring II. If the earlier painting emphasized openness and buoyancy, Delicate Spring III intensifies both vibrancy and complexity, embodying spring not as a fragile awakening but as a flourishing, almost exuberant crescendo.

The composition is more intricate than its predecessor, its brushstrokes denser and more interwoven. Yellows, reds, aquas, and oranges sweep across the blue ground in energetic clusters, creating a sense of multiplicity and unfolding growth. The gestures overlap and converge, resembling blossoms bursting forth or branches tangled in a dance of renewal.

Unlike the lighter dispersal of Delicate Spring II, this work embraces density. The strokes often cross, forming layered constellations that vibrate with energy. The canvas suggests movement not just outward but inward, pulling the viewer into a spiraling rhythm of regeneration.

Color here functions as both vitality and tension. The luminous yellows dominate, evoking sunlight and the promise of growth, while the fiery reds punctuate the composition with urgency and passion. Aqua strokes interject a cool balance, tempering the heat of red and yellow. Black accents, though sparse, ground the composition, introducing weight and depth.

The blue background, expansive and sky-like, situates the gestures in an atmospheric field, transforming the painting into a landscape of renewal suspended in open air. Unlike a naturalistic spring scene, this abstraction conveys emotional and sensory essence rather than literal depiction.

At its core, Delicate Spring III is a meditation on abundance. If the first two paintings in the series hinted at the fragile beginnings of seasonal change, this installment celebrates the peak of emergence—the moment when growth feels unstoppable. The density of gesture mirrors the proliferation of life in spring, where blossoms, shoots, and colors seem to multiply overnight.

The title, with its emphasis on delicacy, complicates the reading. Nowak seems to suggest that even in abundance, spring retains its ephemeral quality. The very density of strokes feels precarious, as though the vibrancy could dissolve at any moment, reminding us of the fleeting nature of seasonal beauty.

Within the New Works Collection, Delicate Spring III builds upon the dialogue between fragility and vigor that characterizes Nowak’s practice. It operates in contrast to the structural-musical ambitions of the Symphony series, offering instead a lyrical reflection on natural cycles. As part of a trilogy, Delicate Spring III can be seen as the most exuberant moment of the sequence—a crescendo of energy before the inevitable return to decline and dormancy.

Delicate Spring III embodies James Nowak’s ability to render seasonal transformation through abstraction. Its dense composition, radiant palette, and interwoven gestures capture the paradox of spring as both delicate and forceful, fleeting and abundant. As the third work in the series, it crystallizes the crescendo of renewal, situating itself as a vital chapter in the 2025 New Works Collection.