Relaxation in View – The Art of Stillness on Water

23 Oct

“Art is the repose of thought – the moment when the mind becomes still enough to see” - Agnes Martin, Canadian abstract painter

There are moments when the surface of the water holds you completely — not just your reflection, but your state of being. In Relaxation in View 1 and Relaxation in View 2, I found myself immersed in that stillness. When I look at them now, I feel something even deeper than relaxation. It’s a total immersion — a sense of connection that feels almost quantum in nature. Everything in that moment — the water, the kayak, the camera, the light — seemed joined in a single field of awareness.

As I floated quietly past a yacht, photographing the reflections around it, I wasn’t merely observing the water — I was the water. The coolness surrounded me; the shimmer of salt on my skin, the sparkle of light ionising the air — all of it seemed to merge. I felt calm, alive, and profoundly healthy — almost externalised, as though I had slipped beyond self-awareness into pure perception itself.

That’s what I now see when I revisit Relaxation in View 1: not just stillness, but belonging — the merging of inner and outer worlds.

For me, Relaxation in View 1 feels grounded, meditative, steady. Relaxation in View 2 opens into a lightness, a quiet exhilaration. Both remind me how easily the boundaries between us and nature dissolve when we truly look.