Region 45s 80e

Creative Rationale

Over the Southern Ocean southeast of Madagascar, fierce westerly winds at 15.2 m/s slash across cold waters where temperatures run 11.8 degrees below the zonal mean. The moderate pressure of 1002.4 Pa with its steep gradient creates spatial tension, while 74% humidity and light precipitation add streaks of diluted color cutting through the composition. I've translated this atmospheric violence into de Kooning's signature aggressive brushwork—diagonal slashes driven by the strong westerly wind, cold greys and blacks dominating the palette with occasional bursts of flesh pink and cadmium yellow where warmer currents break through, and vertical runs of thinned paint representing the precipitation cutting across the thick impasto-like forms.