Rest in Color

Haleh Mashian’s “Rest in Color” is an emotionally charged work of contemporary abstract figurative art that captures the tension between stillness and energy. Composed of vibrant yellows, fiery reds, and deep blacks, she feels like she’s built from emotion rather than paint—alive with movement, even in rest. The warm tones within the figure create a sense of life and urgency, while the chaotic black-and-white strokes around her add contrast and tension. There’s a constant push and pull—between chaos and calm, identity and abstraction, form and fragmentation.

Mashian keeps the face partially obscured, which adds a layer of mystery. It’s not about capturing a specific person—it’s about expressing a state of being. The ambiguity opens the door for personal connection, making the work feel universal.

For collectors and art lovers drawn to expressive, layered mixed media paintings, “Rest in Color” combines bold color, emotional depth, and textured complexity in a way that speaks to the human experience—how we carry emotion, how we take up space, and how we’re constantly shaped by what surrounds us.

About the Artist

As a painter and creative expressionist, Mashian’s abstract works reveal her appreciation of color theory, compositional form, and studying positive and negative space. Working in mixed media and using various techniques from collage to impasto, a repeated layering and application of paint, Mashian’s dynamic pieces range from smaller artworks that can be arranged together to large-scale paintings. Her large-paneled paintings have been exhibited nationally in Los Angeles, Miami, and are included in private collections in the United States and abroad.