RUI CARRUÇO · 2026

The Time Between the Waves

O Tempo Entre as Ondas

In this painting, I sought to capture a moment of stillness and contemplation by the sea. A solitary figure sits fishing on the rocks, facing a horizon where sailboats pass in the distance. More than the act of fishing itself, I am interested in what happens during the waiting: silence, the passing of time, and the intimate relationship between the figure and the vastness surrounding him.

I worked primarily with a palette knife, allowing the materiality and impasto of the paint to remain visible. The figure is deliberately fragmented and partially repeated through geometric planes and subtle shifts in the image. The hat, face and different parts of the body appear at slightly different moments, as though a single presence were being perceived through several overlapping instants.

This fragmentation extends into the sea and sky, bringing figuration closer to abstraction and introducing a sense of time into the composition. Luminous blues contrast with the warm tones of the figure and the dark materiality of the rocks, while the distant sailboats draw the eye towards the horizon.

Rather than simply portraying someone fishing, I wanted to evoke a state of mind: that rare moment when the pace of everyday life slows down and we remain alone before the horizon, accompanied only by the sea, our thoughts and time.

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