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Ephemeral Atmosphere · 2023
Red Sun Rising
Available · in the studio, Phoenix
The sun declaring its temperature rather than its light — not golden, not yellow, but red at the moment it says what it really is.
Red Sun Rising (2023) is a painting about emergence — that quiet but powerful moment when light breaks through and color carries the promise of a new beginning. Part of the Ephemeral Atmosphere Collection, this 48 x 36 inch acrylic work captures the atmosphere of ascent and the emotional charge of transition.
The central form is a deep, round swell of crimson and orange, pushing upward through a field of smoky grays and twilight blues. Its edge glows without sharpness — not the sun as object, but the sun as feeling: warmth after stillness, breath after stillness.
I painted Red Sun Rising after a long internal winter — creatively and personally. It’s not a celebration. It’s a signal. A marker that something has shifted. That the dark may not be over, but the light has made itself known.
The work finds resonance with the elemental clarity of Olafur Eliasson, whose installations harness natural phenomena to provoke presence and wonder. Like Eliasson, I’m drawn to the way light can be emotional — not symbolic, but physical.
Red Sun Rising does not rush. It hums. It offers presence in transition — not what was or what will be, but the moment of becoming.
As part of the Ephemeral Atmosphere Collection, this piece stands at the edge of shadow, holding the warmth of return. A sunrise not in the sky, but in the soul.
Where to see it. In person at RituStudio, Phoenix, by appointment. Represented by Jarrow & Goodman, Los Angeles.
The space it needs
- Wall
- At least 5 ft wide
- Ceiling
- 8 ft or more
- Light
- Natural light transforms this work — morning and evening light read differently
- Daylight
- Cadmium red against lampblack carries well in a bright room, but west light drives the red hotter still. Morning light on an east wall is the fitting match, and the dark ground stays darker out of glare.
Lives best in
Living room 5/5
Red Sun Rising earns its 5 here because the cadmium red core pulled against lampblack margins does exactly what a living room needs: it opens a conversation without closing it, and morning light through a west-facing window will shift the whole painting's temperature by noon.
Bedroom 4/5
The mood score of 5 and the awe-register of that rising red make this too alert for sleep, but on a wall you face while dressing rather than while lying down, the signal quality of the work becomes a genuine asset.
Details
- Size
- 3 × 4 ft (W × H)
- Medium
- Acrylic on canvas
- Finish
- Epoxy over acrylic. The resin lifts the color off the canvas and holds it forward, so the surface deepens as the light moves across the room.
- Year
- 2023
- Collection
- Ephemeral Atmosphere
- Palette
- Lampblack · Bone Shadow · Cadmium Red
- Weight
- About 22 lb
- Ready
- In the studio; delivery 6–10 weeks
Its ArtGram
ArtGram.Fork
- Texture2
- Form2
- Colour range2
- Palette4.3
- Contrast4
- Abstraction Quotient0.5
