Angela Johal

I began this City Colour painting with a drawing of small rectangles and then I began subtracting and adding to those shapes. I was inspired by my Intersecting Colour No. 20 square painting and wanted this painting to be vertical, and work horizontally as well. This painting has a combination of cherry red, crimson, orange, yellows, greens, grayish purples, blues, grays and white. I always begin painting the darker colors and work toward the lights. I mix small amounts of neighboring colors to create a connection between colors and have added grays to most of the colors to soften them but to keep some vivid. I rarely use colors from the tube, but prefer to alter them as to be less recognizable and unique. I work hard to avoid any strong focal points, where the eye keeps moving and experiencing the movement of individual colors. Some of the deeper colors are congregated to give the feeling of architecture, but the painting may also be viewed as non-representational. I love the way the whole painting changes with each new color added, how some colors recede and others float to the surface, and the illusion of layered shapes that adds a three-dimensional quality to the painting.

City Colour No. 2, 2026, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 48 in

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