Well, since I have been called up and put on the spot, I will try to verbalize what my eyes and brain process in a much more effective way than my ability to express myself in English.
First of all, the signature high contrast of all Theo's images does not always play well with my brand of imagination. Sometimes, quite to the contrary. Not exactly this time, though. The contrast of tones and contrast of colors is, in my view, what makes this image intriguing. On the other hand, though, the contrast of positive and negative spaces escapes my sense of logic (funny, that I have mentioned 'logic' in two different posts on the same day).
The way I see it, the foreground light-yellow flower and its high contrast with the dark-purple and blue of the background makes perfect sense and is enough to make this composition work well. But then, there is that large light area in the left portion of the background that clashes with the rest of the (dark) background - for no apparent purpose and to the great distraction of my eyes. It fights (quite effectively) with the flower for my attention - in effect, reducing my overall interest.
So, what happened to Roland? He has other obligations regarding his occupation and his own branding efforts, which takes up a lot of time and mental involvement. Sometimes one has to make a tough choice and go with what is more important, more substantial, more future-oriented. I will always miss his images, his approach to art, his ability to combine the most abstract with the most romantic, and his efforts to guide us all through the hazy swamp we got ourselves into...
We may still see him here from time to time, so don't despair. And if you are fluent in German, you can always find him at his private web sites that he always listed at the bottom of his posts...
