Bath XXXIX Painting

from the series "Self-dissolution" "In her latest works, Grażyna Smalej abandons her former photorealism-esque method of presenting human contact with water (evident in paintings like “Bathing”, numbered from 1 to 70). There is a clear departure here from studies of water in its various manifestations (drops, surfaces, the depths, trickling, splashing, concentric circles or a splashed plume) and also from any attempt to capture a fraction of a second on canvas. In the “Bathings” this fraction is really tiny, because these paintings are directly inspired by photography. A camera’s photosensitive matrix can record an event that the naked eye is incapable of detecting; the shutter of a standard lens opens for 1/125 of a second, and for 1/500 of a second in bright sunlight. The human brain is not able to distinguish a visual event of such short duration, so a camera can be very helpful. When paying attention to detail, accurate study of luxuriant water shapes is only possible with the assistance of optical tools of varied precision." KB