Ricardo Romero Cortez Duque

The Horizon That Held Its Breath / 36 x 36” / Acrylic + Canvas

This painting tells the story of a place poised between movement and stillness. Soft washes of muted blue and gray blend into an uncertain horizon, where sea and sky meet without distinction. The water below is calm, layered more with memory than motion, as though it has been holding itself steady for longer than anyone notices.

Above, the sky stretches wide and contemplative — clouds drifting like thoughts unspoken, carrying light that seems gentle yet deliberate. There is no dramatic contrast, only a thoughtful quiet that feels intentional: a slow exhale from a world that has learned to wait.

The Horizon That Held Its Breath is a story about listening before speaking, and seeing before understanding. It captures that rare moment when nothing interrupts the view, and simplicity becomes presence. The painting invites the viewer to stand in that stillness — to feel the space where expectation and acceptance meet, and to recognize the calm that arrives when nothing pushes, and everything pauses.