The Bather (wild swimming)

Wild swimming – hard sunlight is reflected from dark rippling water as a swimmer tentatively enters a lake. Acrylics on canvas – 61 x 46 cm

£450.00

The Bather (wild swimming) has its source in a photo I found on social media (permission to use sought and granted).

I hardly ever use source material other than my own and have no idea where the lake or loch is. But I was much taken by the strong light in the reflections, the elegance of the bather’s body, and the contrast between the light of the sky, the hazy land, and the dark rippled water.

Rembrandt’s lover and wild swimming

It may seem odd, but I also had Rembrandt’s famous ‘A Woman bathing in a Stream‘ in the back of my mind. Even though the paintings are quite different (and I’m not entirely happy to compare my work to Rembrandt’s genius), there is something about the tentativeness of Rembrandt’s model that I also saw in the source photo, which I wanted to enlarge upon.

Both paintings are erotic. Rembrandt’s model was probably his lover Hendrickje Stoffels. Where we see Henrickje face-on, my bather appears to turn away from us and appears in silhouette (she could be facing the viewer too, depending on how you see it). Later, I was surprised to discover that both paintings are the same size – and there my comparisons rest!

Wild swimming and the environment

Wild swimming is a phrase that doesn’t mean much to me – it is, after all, the way swimming should be. Swimming in a lido should be Urban Swimming.

Unfortunately, the idea of stepping into the wild waters of the UK is not an attractive one these days.  People are angry – and rightly so – that private water companies continue unchecked to release millions of gallons of raw sewage into our water. But the worst pollution of our waterways comes from the industrial run-off of Big Ag.

If you like this painting you might also like one of these: View of Portsmouth from Hayling Island or Coastal Path, Castlemartin.