Abstraction 2

Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
Size: 4ft x 4ft
Creation Date: 2021
Collection: Geometric Splendor

"Abstraction 2" (2021) is a key work in the Geometric Splendor Collection, created during a period of inner upheaval and deep introspection. This 48 x 48 inch acrylic on canvas harnesses the energy of gestural abstraction to explore the rhythms of thought, breath, and bodily memory. The layered strokes, predominantly in shades of blue and teal, sweep across the surface in arcs and eddies, echoing the natural patterns of water, wind, or emotion in flux.

In this painting, the act of mark-making becomes a kind of meditation — less about control and more about surrender. The canvas functions as a field of encounter, a place where feeling precedes form, and intuition overrides intellect. Every brushstroke reveals an emotional velocity, each pause in movement becomes a breath held.

"Abstraction 2" resonates with the spirit of artists like Joan Mitchell, whose large, gestural works channeled inner turbulence into luminous abstraction. Like Mitchell, Ritu Raj uses abstraction not as escape, but as confrontation — with one’s own emotional interior, and with the viewer’s response.

This painting holds contradiction: it is both turbulent and calm, deliberate and spontaneous. The composition invites the eye to travel, to get lost, to search for pattern and then abandon that search. This push and pull is central to Ritu Raj’s practice, where abstraction becomes a tool for presence and transformation.

In a world where clarity is often equated with value, "Abstraction 2" offers something more radical: the permission to be uncertain, to feel deeply, and to move through emotional terrain without needing to name it.