She Listens to the Silence

The second piece in an ongoing series exploring feminine identity, inner stillness, and the state of presence.



This work did not begin with a sketch or a clear concept, but with a quiet inner dialogue. I followed colour, letting it lead me — gently at times, at other moments with impulsive urgency. The woman’s face wasn’t planned; it emerged slowly, as though it wished to be seen.

I stepped away from the canvas… I listened. I waited. The painting wasn’t ready — and neither was I. Only weeks later, without intention to control, I returned. What she asked for was finally clear. Her face is not a pose, not a mask. It is a state of being. She does not perform. She becomes.

One early stage of the process (shown in the photo) was particularly significant — during moments of correction and uncertainty, an unplanned figure appeared: the faint outline of a nun. I didn’t paint her deliberately. She emerged, as if revealed. And from that moment — not conceptual, but deeply intuitive — the rest of the work unfolded. It did not grow from an idea, but from a quiet revelation.

From the depths of layered pigment, other forms began to surface — shadowy silhouettes, almost-faces. I did not place them there. They happened. Not as elements of composition, but as part of the painting’s breath.

Where I let go, the painting began to breathe. In the drips, textures, and cracks — everything came alive. This work is not about narrative. It is about a state. Not about form, but essence.

“She Listens to the Silence” is part of my ongoing exploration of the feminine — her quiet and her strength, her fragility and her resilience, her capacity to hear and simply to be.
She does not explain. She is.