Lotus Hours

Painted over four months from the same corner of the Saraswati temple pond in central Ubud, always in the late afternoon when the water goes almost black and the pads stop reflecting.

There is no horizon and no bank — just the surface, filling the whole square. Rai wanted the picture to be flat in the way the pond is flat, so the only depth comes from the two buds that break the plane.

Acrylic on canvas, unframed, painted edges, signed lower right.