These paintings are all a collection of Color Field paintings. Color Field paintings are abstract paintings that first became known in New York during the 1940s. These paintings mostly contain fields of solid and flat colors spread and/or stained into a canvas creating a flat picture. Then during the 1960s, these Color Field paintings emerged into an art that contained simple geometric shapes and landscape imagery.

These amazing paintings were being displayed in the Lincoln Center. They have recently been taken down, so new art could be showcased.

Read more if you would like to meet the artists!

Painting by the AP art teacher, Ms. Zamora! Ms. Zamora describes that her reason behind this painting was to set an example for her students about what color field paintings are about. She also expressed, “It should be about just the emotion that you are feeling at that time and pulling it all together from an intuitive point of view¨. This painting is made up of leftover paint from art students. Amazing to think this was created out of unwanted paint.

This painting by Irene Nguyen is composed of analogous color schemes—reds, yellows, and whites—to demonstrate an intense emotion. During the process of painting her piece, Irene stated that she was feeling intense emotions herself. At the time, she was going through her menstrual cycle, so she channeled all her pain from cramping into art.

Painted by Karina Garcia. Karina expressed that her painting represents a sunset. She described that she wanted to have a dark side and bright side to her painting, which she explained when she stated, ” On the bottom and top, it just represents the brightness that comes from the darkness”.

Victoria Peres’ inspiration came from researching tons of information on color fields until she  came up the idea of showing a view through her piece. She stated, “what if I do a view and people can see it and be in that moment”. She chose to create a scenery with a field, sunset, at around 6 o’clock to create a calm peaceful vibe when looking at it.

Marisela Palacio informed us that her dream job would be to work in the medical field. Therefore, she said her painting represents electrocardiography, which is the waves of a heart beat. She also stated that she wanted the heart beat (electrocardiography) to be the main focus because “that’s our life right there and our life is our main focus”.

Since color field does not really have a purpose Kasandra Vargas just simply chose to create depth with color. She revealed that at the start, her painting had looked completely different from what it currently does. “I wanted to layer it so I put a whole wash over it and the highlights I had already painted and the shadows still come through but more pushed back”.

Selah Hooks‘ reason behind this painting is yoga! She explains how her father took her to yoga one day and she said she felt all her stress go away. Selah also stated that “The colors of yoga are symbolize peace and prosperity and stuff. The colors that represent that, are green and blue, so I decided to use those colors and symbolize kind of a smooth flowing pattern in my painting”.

Juliet Alfaro chose dark blue and black colors to represent negative emotions within her painting. Her inspiration of the setting is the beach, she considers the beach to be her happy place yet she decided to depict a pessimistic feeling in her piece rather than making it a happy place. In the painting, the black part is meant to show how smooth life is when someone is comfortable until the gold streak (representing change) disrupts the comfortable streak of the gradient. The painter’s assertion about the gold streak is that it could be interpreted as good or bad, but for the most part, it could be despairing because a lot of people fear change.

Kiana Bowlds‘ reason behind her painting was based on some personal conflicts. She stated, “I wanted to do warm colors and something kinda happy”. Kiana used a warm red and purple to comfort people with warm colors. She also  said she wanted to make herself and other people happy. As we can see, Kiana’s painting was all about trying to make people happy!

At the start, Samuel Rodriguez only wanted to focus on red, orange, and yellow colors that he ties with anger, depression, and frustration along with a white line that would represent the purity in the world. When he did not like the way it was coming out, he decided to use opposite colors such as red and blues. He did a lot of experimenting during the process,  “I didn’t really have like a straight on thing, I just let my body take away and paint the canvas and then I added highlights into the few details.” He also saw parts that he wanted to fix, so he mixed a lot of colors to get inspired to find the right shades. It was also the deadline that urged him to get the painting done.

Jackalyn Vi’s inspiration to create this painting was a meme that for quite some time has been roaming social media, the Mr. Krabs meme. A meme is a humorous image of someone or something. She expresses that she did not mean for it to turn into her final piece. Jackalyn said, “What inspired me to paint my painted were the colors. I’m very inspired by a variation of bright colors” .

While looking at a few photos that her teacher Mr. Pringle had taken, Nathania Palacios came across a picture of a sunset that inspired her to paint it. She felt that the orange colors in the photograph would fit in well with the color field assignment. “I just started painting with what I saw and blending the colors together.”

Vera Boukhonine was inspired by other Color Field artists. She said she “used a large brush to make big large strokes”, which you can clearly see in her painting. Vera also describes that she wanted to create a depth in her painting by forming a contrast between the dark and light colors. Also she stated, “I wanted to create emotion as if something is happening”. Vera wanted her painting to resemble motion and she achieved.