A large pastel composition of exceptional chromatic density — one of the most intensely colored works in the entire collection. The picture field is packed with oval and circular forms, each outlined in bold black pastel and filled with brilliant color: reds, yellows, blues, greens, pinks, oranges, purples — no two forms the same color, no color repeated adjacently. The forms press against each other across the full surface, leaving almost no ground visible.
The forms are organized into loose clusters: at upper center, a mass of interlocking colored ovals that suggest a floral burst or an explosion of geological specimens; at left and right, chains of oval forms that cascade downward like beads or vertebrae; at lower center, larger forms with nested internal elements — circles within circles, each ring a different color.
What makes this work distinctive from the geode vocabulary of Portal I is the density: where Portal I used five or six geode forms against an active ground, this work covers the entire surface with hundreds of smaller forms in an all-over composition that has no center, no hierarchy, no focal point. The eye moves continuously, finding new color relationships at every point of rest.
The black outlines throughout — heavy, consistent, drawn with confident pressure — give the composition a stained-glass quality. This is not an abstract watercolor field but an assemblage of discrete colored objects, each one individually considered within its black border. Sidney the jeweler thinking about gems and settings, translated into pastel on paper at large scale.