Art enthusiasts in Vero Beach have a vibrant new reason to visit the Vero Beach Museum of Art. The stunning new exhibition, Jill Nathanson: Chromatic Phrases, places color on center stage, offering an immersive emotional and visual experience. Running through February 7, this showcase brings decades of abstract mastery directly to the Treasure Coast, inviting locals and visitors alike to slow down and truly absorb the canvas.
Jill Nathanson, who splits her time between New York and a studio in Hoboken, New Jersey, began her journey into Color Field painting during the 1970s at Bennington College before earning an MFA from Hunter College. Through personal connections with acclaimed painters of the era, she learned to let color dictate the composition. Over forty years later, she is still passionately expanding upon this abstract style.
“My paintings are about very specifically found color relationships, building beautiful and also tense webs across the picture,” Nathanson explains in the exhibition materials, emphasizing that the works are large enough to be felt physically, not just seen visually.
Caitlin Swindell, the Chief Curator at the Vero Beach Museum of Art, notes that while visitors often try to find hidden images within abstract works, she encourages guests to lean into the emotional response the hues evoke. Swindell points out that a single painting can make a viewer feel unsettled or calm depending on how the unique color interactions are interpreted on any given visit.
Despite the free-flowing appearance of her art, Nathanson’s creative process is remarkably calculated and meticulous. She begins by designing studies using thousands of carefully developed color transparency sheets to map out overlaps and relationships. The physical creation involves a highly specialized technique:
- Preparation: The artist works on either meticulously sanded, sealed, and primed wooden panels or Yupo, a nonabsorbent synthetic paper.
- The Pour: Using a translucent acrylic pouring paint custom-made by Bergen Paints, she tapes out a specific shape and pours the color to create a radiant puddle.
- Patience: Because each poured section takes overnight to dry, a single hue on the canvas represents a full day of dedicated work.
- Finishing Touches: Finally, Nathanson often brushes in areas of oil paint to alter the scale, add contrasting texture, and complicate the overall visual dynamic.
The exhibition highlights several captivating pieces that challenge traditional color placement. For instance, in Ricochet (2025), Nathanson utilizes only four colors, yet the strategic overlapping creates immense pressure and tension as vibrant yellows push forward against darker tones pressing them back.
In Psalm Harp (2024), viewers are treated to fluid ribbons of color moving across an expansive rectangular field. The artist describes it as a representation of openness that is pressurized at the sides, noting that it reflects a type of beauty more akin to the complexities of real life rather than just a “pretty painting.”
Rather than placing complementary colors side-by-side, works like Untitled (2024) position yellow on the far left and purple on the right, deliberately forcing the observer’s eye to travel across the entire picture to complete the spectrum. Furthermore, in Breathtouch (2025), Nathanson masterfully combines purples and oranges—colors traditionally not paired together—resulting in a gorgeous, organic sequence of light and dark elements that occurred naturally during the drying process.
While Color Field painting may have faded from mainstream trends by the time Nathanson graduated from college, her dedication over the last four decades proves the profound, enduring impact of this artistic language. For residents of Indian River County seeking a deeply moving cultural experience, this exhibit offers a rare glimpse into the thrill of color relationships. The Chromatic Phrases exhibition remains on view through February 7. For more information on visiting hours and admission, local art lovers can visit VBMuseum.org.
