Play in the water

A strange thing happened while painting this watercolor of a water game by six 'Are'are women from Malaita in the Solomon Islands. The scene I painted, a still from the movie 'Are'are Music, kept animating in front of my eyes. The whole scene played out continuously as if I were there. I felt a sense of empathy as I could identify with the performers. Not as being one of them but more like an onlooker. There's a voyeuristic element to the scene as it seems such a private gathering. Hugo Zemp, who filmed the scene, must have felt it too, even though the filming and recording of sound and the performance itself must have been carefully planned. The high vantage point enhances this sensation. You are looking at the performance from a perch quite a bit higher than the surface of the water. It helped that the performers are somewhat familiar, especially Aaresi, and Il'eresi as they were recorded by Zemp on various occasions and who are multiple times in this Top 100 and who I've painted already several times. Aaresi is in the center while Il'eresi is on the right. About the music: The sounds are similar to the traditional drums used by the 'Are'are and some rhythms played also mimic traditional drum rhythms. But there are no drums used, only hand clapping, on and beneath the water surface. Water drum games are not unique to the 'Are'are. Many water games, drum rhythms, have been recorded among the people of the Central African rain forests. Water drums by the Baka people, for example, was the first time an ethnographic recording ended up high in a Top 100 list. This was in 2004. The COVID0-19 series are now nearly completed and no active cases of the pandemic are recorded in the Solomon Islands. The total amount of cases during the one and a half year of COVID is a mere 20. Nobody died.