I don’t usually work in a figurative manner. The theme of Galerist’s 25th anniversary show, self-portrait, led me to think about portraiture. For some time now, I have been exploring the vibrations of water, its tidal movements, and its shifting surfaces in my paintings. Building on this, I decided to paint my reflection, barely perceptible within the movement of the water.

I appear in the painting only as a silhouette. Without any details, I am there. It is a moment in which I can see myself, albeit indistinctly. Rather than representing a figure, the painting emerged from an attempt to see myself as part of that surface and its movement.

There is also a small change in my recent practice that I explore in this painting. The brushstrokes I build up layer by layer on the canvas gradually become too regular as my hand becomes accustomed to the movement. I try to break this spontaneously emerging order and relinquish control once again. In this painting, I do so by changing the direction of the brushstrokes from vertical to horizontal, forcing my hand into a movement it is not accustomed to.