Hyperrealistic Underwater Paintings of Women in a Deep State of Tranquility

Influenced by a childhood spent near the ocean, Reisha Perlmutter incorporates the memories of gentle ripples and light rays refracting through water into her hyperrealistic paintings. Her newest series, AQUA, depicts women peacefully submerged in water, her use of light, shadows, and color communicating a genuine sense of tranquil escapism. The series has allowed Perlmutter to jump “back into the magic of her childhood, and her intimate memories with light, water, and its sensation,” and this reconnection to youthful happiness is apparent within the stunning works.

Having studied Fine Arts in institutions throughout America, it was only during a residency in Italy that Perlmutter was reawakened to her fascination with light. The result of this renewed inspiration, her AQUA series explores ideas of “weightlessness, and our deep connection to our senses beyond the confines of thought or intellect. Light is critical to these works. It is metaphorical, of course, in terms of internal illumination, but also directly necessary in evoking sensation and beauty through its presence and inherent complexity.”

Perlmutter taps into a perception of oneness and connectivity by depicting her models in moments of complete surrender to sensation. Her delicate paintings employ light and shadows shifting through undulating waves as an energy source and beacon, abstracting but simultaneously enhancing the subject in each composition.