As mentioned previously, Mountains and Sea is an abstraction. As this painting is non-objective, there is not much indication as to what the composition depicts. The only indication of its contents is the painting’s title. The dominant elements are the sprawls of color across the canvas. The painting in done in pale colors. The color palette is limited, mostly using only pinks, blues and greens. This painting is massive. The dimensions of the finished canvas clock in over nine and a half feet wide and just over seven feet tall.
Within this painting there is an interesting mix of line qualities. This could immediately be attributed to the different mediums used. It seems as though Frankenthaler first outlined in charcoal the shapes she intended to make later with oil. A good few of the shapes represented on the canvas are outlined in charcoal. This however is not the case in the entire composition. While some of the shapes made with colored oil paints are outlined in think, hasty, charcoal lines, the creations on more than half the canvas are a product of free flowing paint. If it weren’t for its scale, Mountains and Sea could almost be mistaken for a watercolor painting. That is the technique of soak stain that Frankenthaler used. The watered-down oils used on this unprimed canvas created a work
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The shapes in Mountain and Sea are indeed defined by color. This however, does not define the composition as a whole. There are many areas where shapes intersect. There are many areas in which the abstractions diverge. Just what happens between shapes and colors is defined by the amount of paint of the color in that area. The composition as a whole is flat in color values. There is not much variation between colors. There is more interest when looking at colors in their defined shapes and looking at how these sections interact with the shapes around it. Thus, the composition as a whole is