Rising Red 36" x 48"

James Nowak’s Rising Red stands as one of the more dramatic and powerful compositions in the Colors of Joy Collection. While many works in the series embrace themes of gentleness, harmony, and seasonal vitality, this painting centers on a bold, upward surge of energy. Its title foregrounds the role of red as both color and metaphor—representing vitality, passion, and movement—rising dynamically through layers of blues and yellows. This piece exemplifies Nowak’s ability to use abstraction to convey not only joy but also the powerful tension that underlies it.

As the title suggests, red is the defining presence in the composition. Unlike Softly Rising, where blues and yellows dominate, Rising Red positions crimson as the central axis around which other hues circulate. Red bursts across the canvas in fiery strokes, sometimes sharply edged, sometimes blurred into adjacent blues and whites.

The upward movement of red suggests vitality breaking through calm surfaces—an emotional surge cutting through serenity. In this sense, the painting embodies both tension and triumph, as if joy itself is not merely serene but forged through intensity. The “rising” element implies resilience: an overcoming, a breakthrough, an ascent toward illumination.

While red drives the composition, its intensity is tempered by surrounding blues. These range from deep navy to soft aquamarine, forming an expansive ground that evokes sky or water. The contrast between the fiery red and cooling blues creates visual drama—heat against calm, passion against reflection.

Yellow enters as a mediator. Its bursts of brightness punctuate the canvas like shafts of light, bridging the polarity of red and blue. The result is not conflict but interplay, where joy emerges precisely from contrast. Instead of harmony achieved through sameness, the painting demonstrates harmony born from difference—red’s intensity rising against blue’s serenity, illuminated by yellow’s radiance.

The brushstrokes in Rising Red are bold and directional, emphasizing momentum. They sweep upward diagonally, reinforcing the theme of ascent. Unlike the circular flow of Gentle Circle or the diffuse atmosphere of Summer Flowers, this piece is directional and forceful, with strokes that feel like surges or bursts of energy.

The rhythm of the painting suggests both urgency and inevitability. It is not a static image but a dynamic process: red rising, blues shifting, yellows sparking. The overall effect is symphonic crescendo—a visual climax that pulls the eye upward, embodying the energy of growth and striving.

Emotionally, Rising Red departs from the softer registers of other works in the collection. While still rooted in the language of joy, this is joy in its most powerful and transformative form: ecstatic, fiery, and uncontainable. The painting acknowledges that joy is not always gentle—it can also be fierce, the product of overcoming resistance, the surge of life itself.

This interpretation aligns Rising Red with themes of resilience, determination, and passion. It suggests that joy is not merely a passive state but an active, rising force within the human spirit.

Within the collection, Rising Red occupies an essential role by expanding the emotional spectrum of joy. If Softly Rising embodies tender renewal, Gentle Circle conveys harmony, and Symphony Number 1 orchestrates complexity, Rising Red embodies intensity. It demonstrates that joy is multifaceted: it can be delicate, communal, cyclical, or—as here—fiery and triumphant.

By emphasizing red as the central motif, Nowak introduces an element of passion and urgency to the collection, ensuring that his exploration of joy remains both expansive and dynamic.

James Nowak’s Rising Red is a bold and dynamic meditation on the power of color, gesture, and movement. With red as its rising force, balanced by blues and illuminated by yellows, the painting transforms abstract forms into a visceral experience of ascent and vitality.

Ultimately, the work reminds us that joy is not a single tone but a spectrum—sometimes gentle, sometimes fierce. In Rising Red, joy is portrayed as an unstoppable force, surging upward with intensity, resilience, and passion.