No. 3/No. 13 (Magenta, Black, Green on Orange), oil on canvas painting by Mark Rothko

If there ever was a painting-by-mood school of art, color field would seem to fit the bill. Think large canvases of perfectly brush-stroked and mixed colors, paintings that are interesting in the way the paint is laid upon the canvas, how it is mixed, paintings that truly evoke a feeling, as there is no scene to look at and nothing else to get caught up in.

Color field was an American art movement, it's birth in New York City, mostly during the 40's and 50's. The color field painters for the most part were also known as the “New York School” of artists, which also included poets, dancers and musicians.

When imagining color field work, the fuzzy colors of Mark Rothko's infamous canvases first come to mind. Although it should be said that Rothko eschewed labels altogether, refusing to refer to himself as an abstract artist, much less a color field artist! While working on New York on his grand portfolio of colored canvases, he taught art and clay molding for income.

As Rothko's fame grew, he worried that people were only buying his paintings because they had become trendy. He worried that people misunderstood his art, which was described by him as: “expressing basic human emotions — tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on. And the fact that a lot of people break down and cry when confronted with my pictures shows that I can communicate those basic human emotions . . . The people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when I painted them. And if you, as you say, are moved only by their color relationship, then you miss the point.”

On the other end of the color field was Robert Motherwell. Motherwell also was a color-field artist but his brush strokes were of great inky blank motions on white canvases. He used turpentine to create a shadow effect behind the black images. His goal was to engage the viewer in the physical and emotional work of the artist to the canvas.

Colorfield paintings actually defined much of the 20th-21^st century in painting. With artist from Rothko and Motherwell to Pollock, Miro, Klee, Stella, Hofmann and many more it is easy to see how this has become such a much-loved type of art.

In my opinion, a color-field painting is a romantic gift. These paintings capture pure feeling, the emotions that stir, unable to be pinned down by words, to great to take a pen to. Have a replica of a color field painting made for someone that you feel intense about—let the artists brushstrokes and genius use of soft, smooth and rough colors do the talking for you. A simple print could never master the beauty of color field works, and picking out such a legendary and understated work would certainly up your smoothness points!