Where Still Water Trembles

A narrow expanse of water leads through marshland towards a distant line of trees beneath a cool, clouded sky. Pale blue reflections divide the dense greens and earthy browns of the vegetation, while dark, broken reeds rise from the water like fragments of an unfamiliar language.

Although the landscape itself is still, the painting is alive with movement. Mária Bodrogi’s swift, energetic brushstrokes seem to set the trees, grasses and reeds in motion, as though a sudden wind were passing across the marsh. Marks lean into one another, colours shift and the surface appears to breathe—yet the water at the centre remains strangely undisturbed.

In Where Still Water Trembles, stillness and motion exist at the same time. The restless brushwork may suggest forces that cannot be seen directly: wind moving through the landscape, time passing across it, or something stirring beneath an apparently calm surface. The painting captures the instant before the water breaks—when everything seems motionless, yet nothing is truly at rest.

An original oil painting on canvas created in 2010 by Hungarian artist Mária Bodrogi.

Year: 2010
Dimensions: 40 × 40 cm
Medium: Oil on canvas
Framing: Unframed
Original artwork: One of a kind
Certificate of authenticity: Included