When Forces Collide by Alantherock: Where the Orange Runs Out

When Forces Collide is an original acrylic painting by Alan Pedersen, working as Alantherock: a deep blue canvas with a single stream of orange running down into it from the top edge. The orange arrives at full strength. Before it reaches the lower quarter of the canvas, the blue has taken all of it.

When Forces Collide by Alantherock is a one of a kind original painting by the Copenhagen artist Alan Pedersen, made with water based acrylic paint and markers on canvas. It measures 50 by 50 centimetres, is signed by the artist and is held exclusively at NOKUKO. Only the original exists.

The Orange Changes Colour on the Way Down

The stream does not stay orange. It comes in through the top edge about an eighth of the canvas wide, in a hot, almost fluorescent orange, and it narrows the whole way down. A little above the middle it turns red. Below the middle it is pink, then a deeper pink leaning towards violet, and a little after two thirds of the way down there is no warm paint left at all. Under the stream, the last stretch of the canvas is blue.

Follow it down and the colour moves steadily round from orange, through red, into magenta, which is the side of the colour wheel the blue sits on. The orange is not stopped by the blue. It is turned into it, a little at a time, over the length of the stroke.

So the collision in the title is not a line where two things meet. It is a length. It has a beginning at the top edge, where the orange is pure, a long middle where both colours are present in the same stroke, and an end, where one of them is gone.

Sparks at the Top, Spirals at the Bottom

The drawn details in When Forces Collide are small and quiet, and they sit away from the orange. Near the top, where the stream enters, tiny flecks of orange are thrown out on either side of it, like sparks coming off the point of impact. They thin out as the stream descends and do not follow it down.

In the lower left of the canvas, rising along the left side and running along the bottom, there is a band of spirals and curling lines drawn in a blue only a shade lighter than the ground. From across a room they disappear into the paint. Close to, they turn over on themselves like wind or water. The notes on the painting describe the acrylic and the markers as chosen to complement each other and to highlight the collision, and this is where the markers do it: at the far corner, where the orange never reaches.

The ground itself is not one blue either. It is dragged in long vertical strokes, brighter towards the middle of the canvas and almost black along the right edge, so the stream runs down through a field that is already dark on one side of it and lit on the other.

One Canvas, Signed, With Its Certificate

When Forces Collide exists once. The painting measures 50 by 50 centimetres, approximately 19.7 by 19.7 inches, and it is sold as the canvas alone, without a frame. There are no sizes to choose between, no colourways and no print edition behind it.

It is signed by Alan Pedersen and marked by him as an original, and it comes with a certificate of authenticity. NOKUKO issues certificates for original works rather than for prints, which is the honest line between this painting and the art prints in the rest of the collection. The painting is open for enquiries, and purchase and shipping are arranged directly with NOKUKO by email at hello@nokuko.com.

The painting was first introduced in December 2023, alongside two other originals, Beneath the Surface and Between Worlds, in a post that also carries Alan's own account of how he works: the painting itself becomes an active partner in the process. For the same hand at a different pitch, Rising Phoenix by Alantherock is the other acrylic original by Alan that NOKUKO has written about, a neon ground with a phoenix drawn over it in hundreds of small marks.

Alan's note on this painting talks about forces that arise seemingly from nothing, then flourish into greatness or fade back into nothingness. The orange here does both in about 35 centimetres. It arrives from beyond the top edge at its brightest, and it leaves by becoming the blue.

He also says he wants the rest left open to interpretation, and the painting keeps to that. It shows you where the orange goes. It does not tell you which of the two colours won.

About When Forces Collide

What is When Forces Collide painted with?
When Forces Collide is an original painting made with water based acrylic paint and markers on canvas. The acrylic carries the blue ground and the orange stream, and the markers carry the small drawn details, including the spirals in the lower left of the canvas.

What size is When Forces Collide, and does it come framed?
The painting measures 50 by 50 centimetres, approximately 19.7 by 19.7 inches. It is sold as the canvas alone, without a frame.

Is When Forces Collide available as a print or in other editions?
No. When Forces Collide is a unique piece. There are no sizes to choose between, no colourways and no print edition. Only the original exists.

What makes When Forces Collide exclusive, and how is it bought?
It is an original acrylic painting held exclusively at NOKUKO, signed by Alan Pedersen and marked by him as an original. It comes with a certificate of authenticity, which NOKUKO issues for original works rather than for prints. Purchase and shipping are arranged directly with NOKUKO by email.