Contemporary Abstract Expressionism I Frozen Morning Amsterdam

This painting has a striking wintry character, built from white, silver-grey, charcoal, and black, warmed by small accents of copper, terracotta, and blush pink. The composition is made of overlapping vertical and rectangular shapes, like panes of glass, layered walls, or a city seen through a frosted window. Dark black and charcoal forms gather on the left of centre, with softer, irregular edges like shadows or ink blots, and smaller dark shapes repeat across the middle and lower right. Short white horizontal dashes cut through them in places, like light through shutters. The warm notes are scattered throughout: copper and burnt orange in small blocks and flecks, strongest along the right edge, with soft blush pink in the centre and lower left. They add warmth to an otherwise cool palette, like lamplight glowing behind ice. The texture is the most distinctive feature. Large areas are covered in fine raised patterns: crackled, net-like veins in the centre and right, and feathery, fern-like marks on the left and right edges. They look exactly like frost crystals forming on a cold window. The paint is layered with knife and brush, with some areas smooth and dragged and others pressed into delicate relief, so the surface changes as light moves across it. It reads as frost flowers on a window on a winter morning, a frozen city seen through glass, or the patterns of ice on an old canal house window.