Although it is samll in size, this little gouache packs a big punch idea-wise. Several interesting pictorial cues are at work here; the orange line bisecting the big white shape becomes a "tree" or 3D form at the bottom, casting a shadow back onto the white. The white is simply the white of the page. So the white shape seems to be setting back far enough for the shadow to function. The tinted version of the orange and green occur in the painting, but they confuse any spatial reading. On the right it seems to receed into space, yet at the top they advance. The bright orange line surafces in 3 places, each changing the reading of the image.
Originally, this was half of a larger painting. Cropping can be such a versatile tool.
