In this work, we see two young boys who, although separated by small gestures, are united in a shared stillness. The space seems to be suspended, with the air charged with a serenity that is not simply calm, but a contained way of being together. One smokes, letting the smoke slowly dissolve in the warm evening air, while the other loses himself in the pages of a book, oblivious to anything but that moment of reading.

What is striking here is not so much the activity, but the way in which both, in their silence and in their mutual company, become the same presence, as if each were the extension of the other. In this small universe, their solitude becomes shared. There is no urgency in their gestures, nor in their minds. They are here, simply, as if nothing else were needed to make them feel complete. In the heat of summer, by the Mediterranean, they feel so close that there is no need to speak, no need to look at each other. The connection is subtle, but palpable, like an unspoken understanding that needs no definition.

This painting seems to capture what is often missing: the calm of being oneself with another, without the need to compete or assert anything. There are no expectations or pretensions. They are together, and that is enough. In their silent presence, there is a release. The outside world fades away, and all that remains is this shared space that somehow becomes all that matters. In its simplicity, it is revealed the beauty of what does not need to be explained, of a love that does not need to be seen or understood by others to exist.