The emphasis of the drawing is the front tower in the upper left. It is the largest form in the drawing and all of the lines from the vanishing points point to it. Perspective is the main feature in the cobalt castle becuase it has 2 vanishing points that everything lines up to. The space is balanced well the castle and ground are positive space and the sky is negative space. Because it is a perspective drawing, there are more geometric shapes, but the rocks and tree help balance this. The only issue is the color, there is a lack of warm colors when compared to the blue castle and the grass.
This is one of the few pieces by Mark Rothko that isn't quite so abstract. Rothko used oil paints on canvas and this peice currently resides at the Kate Rothko Prizel Collection.
Color contributes some to the quality of this painting as it has more color diversity than many of his other works, it also has good balance with the neutral purple floor and the equal light and dark areas. The texture defines the mood, it is rather blurry and none of the people have well defined features or faces. At the time New York was believed to be soul-less and I think the blurry and faceless people make the mood melancholy .
