Lake Como – Quiet Water, Clear Mind
Lake Como is one of the few places where my mind feels completely quiet. The first time I stood by the water there, it felt as if the noise of everything else in my life had stepped back a little. The air was soft, the light was diffused, and the rhythm of the lake was slow and steady, as if it was breathing on its own.
I return to this place whenever I can, and even when I’m far away it stays very present in my thoughts. There is a particular clarity I feel there – a sense that I can see both outward and inward at the same time. The mountains, the water, the small movements of boats and people along the shore all seem to exist in a kind of gentle balance. Nothing is rushed.
This collection grew out of that feeling of balance and stillness. I wasn’t interested in a perfect geographic record of the view. What mattered to me was the way the light settles on the surface of the water, and how the colours change as the day begins to fold into evening. The reflections are never fixed; they keep dissolving and forming again, just like thoughts.
While I was working on these pieces, I kept thinking about how the lake seems to hold many lives at once – visitors passing through, people who live there, memories they leave behind. For me, it has become a place where I can listen more carefully, both to the world around me and to myself. These paintings are an attempt to hold that calm, that clarity, on the canvas for a little longer.
When I look at this work now, I don’t just see a landscape. I see a memory of breathing more slowly, of feeling that for a short time, everything was exactly as it needed to be.