Yellowstone

Imagine soaring in a small plane over Yellowstone National Park, gazing down at its steaming hot springs. That is the sensation Catherine de Potter chased in this 2010 painting simply titled Yellowstone. Deep blue pools spread across the top of the canvas, gradually softening into a hazy turquoise before giving way to bands of rust and burnt orange in the lower corner. Those warm edges echo the real thing, where minerals and heat loving bacteria paint colorful rings around the park's geothermal pools.

De Potter works in an abstract style, meaning she cared more about color, movement, and mood than about tracing every ripple and rock. The paint appears to flow and blend on its own, with the blues drifting from dark and stormy at the top to a gentle, milky blue further down. The result feels both peaceful and alive, hinting at the steam curling upward and the water bubbling somewhere beneath. Yellowstone handed her a ready made palette of astonishing color, and she leaned right into it.