Symphony Number II 24" x 24"

See more paintings at the Glorious Brushstrokes Collection.

Following the orchestral vigor of Symphony Number I, James Nowak’s Symphony Number II extends his exploration of painting as a visual analogue to music. Part of the 2025 New Works Collection, the painting can be read as the “second movement” of a larger composition—a continuation that refines, complicates, and expands the thematic concerns of its predecessor. If Symphony Number I established rhythm and dramatic force, Symphony Number II embraces brightness, layering, and polyphony, drawing the viewer into a dynamic interplay of harmony and counterpoint.

The canvas is alive with intersecting strokes of yellow, blue, green, orange, and black, all set against a warm ochre ground. Compared with the clustered density of Symphony Number I, this work disperses its marks with greater openness, allowing space between gestures to act as pauses or rests. The composition oscillates between density and release, with brushstrokes forming interwoven patterns that suggest both orchestral layering and improvisational energy.

Gesturally, the strokes seem less percussive than in Symphony Number I, more fluid and melodic. Their angular crossings and sweeping arcs resemble overlapping musical lines—voices weaving into polyphonic texture.

Color takes on the role of instrumentation. The dominant yellow strokes, luminous and insistent, function like a soaring brass or strings section, carrying much of the painting’s melodic energy. The blues provide balance, evoking cooler tones that soften the intensity. Orange injects vibrancy and warmth, while black serves as a grounding counterpoint—like the resonance of a cello or bass. The ochre ground, as in the first symphony, functions as silence or air, a necessary backdrop for the sound of color to emerge.

The overall palette creates an atmosphere of exuberance and uplift, with a brightness that feels almost celebratory.

Symphony Number II is best understood as a meditation on multiplicity. Each brushstroke operates independently, yet together they create a network of visual relationships akin to voices in a fugue or themes in orchestral development. The title suggests that Nowak is not simply painting with rhythm, but composing with abstraction, allowing his canvases to function as movements within a larger symphonic architecture.

Where Symphony Number I emphasized orchestral weight and chordal density, this work embodies lightness and interplay, suggesting that the symphonic project is not monolithic but multifaceted. It reaffirms the artist’s vision of painting as a time-based medium—one that unfolds rhythmically, sequentially, and collaboratively across strokes and spaces.

Together with Symphony Number I, this painting signals a new direction in Nowak’s 2025 work: an ambitious attempt to bridge abstraction with the structural and emotional logic of music. The “symphonies” distinguish themselves from his other works in the collection (Tension, Fly Away) by their explicit musical framing, yet they also remain rooted in his signature concern with energy, duality, and freedom. Symphony Number II demonstrates that the series is not merely metaphorical but compositional, functioning as a true suite of visual movements.

Symphony Number II transforms the canvas into a concert hall of color and gesture. Through its interwoven marks and radiant palette, James Nowak creates a visual polyphony that resonates with musical complexity and lyrical vitality. It is not a repetition of the first symphony but a development—a second movement that carries forward themes of rhythm, color, and relationality with renewed lightness. In doing so, it affirms Nowak’s vision of abstraction as a living, breathing symphony of sight and sensation.