That’s right. This is a beach on the Baltic
Sea. Baltic beaches in Poland face
north. Therefore, people who relax on the sand, have their backs exposed
to sun that travels from the right hand side to the left in the course of a
day. When wind blows from the West, which is common situation for the
region, water is dark in color, such as emerald or sapphire. Sometimes
however, Eastern wind brings long lasting beautiful hot, sunny weather
and then Baltic water becomes light green or blue, similar to the Gulf of Mexico in Florida.
It is July, late afternoon. Sun dominates all the colors on the
beach, which is located probably somewhere on the narrow piece of land between
Vistula Bay and main body of Baltic water. About seven miles to the West
there is a major vacation spot where thousands of vacationers come for each
two-week turn. On the East there is nothing but the Russian border.
The beach here is deserted. Light breeze delicately raises waves, every
seventh of which is slightly higher than the other six. Should you not
believe it, feel free to count and see by yourself. The air movement is
just sufficient to cool the heat caused by sun on the skin. Such weather
is the trickiest, it grills the newly arrived pale faced city dwellers so that
after an hour or two their skin resembles a Thanksgiving turkey and few days
later the victims shed their skin like a snake…
Nevertheless, a young lady on the picture is used to the sun, wind and
water. Coppertone-suntanned, she must live here or perhaps she is a
seasonal worker. It seems to be her day off today. At such a time,
all the forces of the Nature are on her side. It is only difficult to
decide, whether first run into water and swim far away and then expose the back
to the sunbath, or first lay on the sand and collect some sun rays and then go
to swim. O, yes, let’s go to water and dive deep, to see a jellyfish, or
a cross-eyed flounder, or a sea devil with an ugly face and a fish bait grown
on its forehead. And then, exhausted from forceful swimming, let’s sit to
relax on a log whitened by sea salt and feel water steaming from the skin and
stiffness of salt and to smell the aroma of the sea. Does sea
smell? The only way to find out is to experience by oneself.
Someone might raise a question – why the girl has no swimsuit? Well,
it would sound like unnecessary sensationalism. Since the beach is
abandoned, the textiles are not needed, believe me. Anyway, if some sort
of pervert equipped with binoculars will desire to peep, be my guest. He
would not notice any fat or belly dangling from side to side, or varicose veins
on the legs, or orange peel, or grayish complexion of a smoker, yet there is
youth and Nature and wonderful golden reddish hair. It would have been
sin to trim such a treasure, dye, tease, twist, or otherwise torture hot or
cold. And there is a joy of being a part of the Environment.
All this is not shown clearly. The Artist has created a masterpiece
with a few strokes of her painter’s brush, to present details just by causing
the right impression. More frugal than in the Impressionismitself, the painting suggests that those details naturally
do exist but if we try to look hard, we will not see anything. However,
if one steps back and looks from the distance, everything will be
noticed. The wind, water, coarse sand, reflections of the ever-present sun
in the blue sea, little rocks and see weeds in the foamy wave, and shades that
at this time of a day are red in color, and even tiny crystals of amber by the
waterline. Athletic girl, perhaps in her middle twenties, occupies a diagonal
part of the picture while her spread arms take the perpendicular line to the
body. The painter must have demonstrated purposedly that she knows very
well the secrets of composition. Sometimes on the other hand, she not
always wishes to obey these rules.
Well, this is what the artistic greatness is, to be able to avoid the
enslavement by conventions and still create a great thing.
