Lever du Soleil

Bold yet breathtakingly tender, *Lever du Soleil* announces itself with the quiet force of a sky on the verge of transformation. Aia Bower sweeps lavender, periwinkle, blush, and bursts of saffron gold across a 20" × 20" cradled wood panel in layer upon luminous layer — each mark alive with the momentum of a sunrise that refuses to be still. This is mixed media painting at its most visceral and its most intimate: gestural strokes collide and dissolve, pigment surfaces and retreats, and the whole composition hums with a chromatic energy that stops a room cold. For the discerning collector, this piece represents everything that makes Bower's work a compelling acquisition. Rooted in the lineage of Abstract Expressionism — she counts Diebenkorn, Bonnard, and Matisse among her touchstones — and sharpened by more than a decade of living and working across France and Italy, her paintings carry the rare authority of an artist who has lived what she paints. *Lever du Soleil* is not decorative; it is experiential. It radiates the exact quality of early morning light over the Marin headlands, filtered through a sensibility shaped by Paris and the Mediterranean. Works of this caliber, by an artist with Bower's exhibition history and critical grounding, command lasting attention in both private and institutional collections.