Breaking the Surface

About Breaking the Surface

This large contemporary abstract acrylic painting is rendered in spring colours.

Adam Cohen reprises his own singular vision of Action painting in this bright, modern composition.
In this style of abstract expressionism, popular in the 1940’s-1960’s paint is applied to the canvas in spontaneous movements—dripping, splashing and smearing. Here, swirling passages and drips of teal, gold, orange, green and white coalesce at the heart of the canvas. The vivid palette is reminiscent of the glorious colours of spring time. Cohen’s paintings are highly textured as he also favours the impasto technique—thick applications of paint that naturally add depth and movement.

“Painting is always challenging. Each new piece you’re up against an empty canvas. You must jump in and try to be as uninhibited as possible. No holding back. Picasso said it took him a lifetime to learn to create as free as a child again.” Adam Cohen

“His fields of colour and texture have the breadth and openness of the openness of the sky or aerial views from the earth’s surface.” Carter Ratcliff, Art Critic

Adam Cohen studied at Philadelphia’s Tyler School of Art and lived and painted in Rome for years. After many years as an illustrator in NYC, he returned to his first love--painting. Adam Cohen lives and paints in the Catskills, NY. Cohen has exhibited extensively in the US, Europe, Asia and most recently in Amsterdam, Venice and Long Island, New York.