The magenta gets everywhere. It starts in her hair and then it takes the whole picture — the air, the rain, the umbrella she is supposedly hiding under.
A woman in profile on Flatbush, drawn in one thick black line, deep warm skin, her face kept to herself. Behind her, a flat two-colour New York and one simple piece of city. Above her, the storm has stopped being a storm.
Look at the umbrella again
It is not protecting her. It is coming apart into blooms — cobalt, gold, emerald, that magenta pushing through everything. An umbrella is meant to keep the weather off you. This one is letting it in, and the colour is not falling down onto her, it is growing up out of her. Once you see that direction, you cannot unsee it. She is not caught in the rain. The rain caught her and lost.
That reversal is Naomi’s whole move. She paints people as bursts of colour and refuses to make them pose for you — she will not show you the face, and after a minute you stop wanting it. One critic called it visual poetry. It is more like weather with an opinion.
What happens once it is up
The room gets braver. Everything near it looks like it was chosen on purpose. Guests ask about her, then ask again on the way out.
Getting it on the wall
Canvas, matte, an inch and a quarter deep, and the colour keeps going around the sides so there is no blank edge and no frame to buy. It arrives stretched and ready — one nail, done. Matte means a lamp or a window opposite gives you the painting back, not a glare.
Landscape. Most people take the 20 x 16 in (51 x 41 cm) at $149. The 14 x 11 in is $129, and go 24 x 18 in at $229 if the wall is wide. A high quality print of a digital artwork, made for you when you order — up to ten business days, free shipping in the continental US, and nobody on your street will have it.
One honest thing
It is loud. If your room is beige on purpose, this will fight it and win. If you like colour, it is the piece that makes everything else look confident.
Take her home, or go see the rest of Naomi’s blooms first — and if you follow her, you get the next one before the rest of us.
