Girl in a floral swimsuit 2017

Sergey Piskunov painted ‘Girl in a floral swimsuit,’ and there’s something so dreamy about the way the figure floats in this pool of blues and turquoises. I can imagine Piskunov in the studio, lost in the act of painting, layering strokes of colour to capture the way light dances on the water’s surface. The paint is applied so thinly in the pool area. The ripples and refractions create an almost hypnotic effect. And the bathing suit, a splash of floral against the cool blue, feels like a little party. You know, painting water like this is a challenge. Think of Hockney’s swimming pools but also of Ophelia by Millais. There is something about a body floating in water that lends itself to painting. Painters are always in conversation, borrowing and riffing off one another’s ideas. It's like a big, ongoing game of telephone, where each artist adds their own spin. It is such an embodied expression. And what it communicates embraces the ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations.