With the arrival of March, the Daugava Gallery has opened Dace Lielā's solo show Paintings, which does not even have a title that would indicate something common, characterizing the exhibited works. Then they are looking for beautiful and true words to string together in sentences that would say something essential about what she has painted. But, is it even necessary, if what Dace Lielā has painted, is understandable in English, Swedish, German, Spanish, even Japanese. Dace Lielā paints nature.

Her teacher in painting, the excellent marine painter Eduards Kalniņš, said that he does not paint what he sees, but what he feels and knows. The same could be said about the nature painted by Dace, because one would not want to call her a landscape painter. That is not a bad word, but this time it’s not about wanting to explain why Claude Debussy wrote that "music is precisely the art that is closest to nature." Only musicians are given the privilege of capturing all the poetry of night and day, sky and earth, depicting the atmosphere of nature and conveying its incomprehensible rhythmic pulsation. If Dace's painting must be "translated", if it must be talked about, then the words can be "put to rest" and listen to the music of Pēteris Vasks, Arvo Part or Claude Debussy instead. You can, but you can also rely on absolute silence and dive deep into yourself, surrender to your dreams, hopes, longings, loneliness and lost illusions.

Painting, same as music, is high art, its world of expressions and experiences is infinite, of course, only for those who master this instrument. The aforementioned professor Eduards Kalniņš said that first you have to become a virtuoso and then go further. Such a slight confusion – further, where is this “further”. And this is indicated by Dace Liela’s painting, almost every painting takes you further, and it is possible to notice this for everyone who indulges in her painting, which is not just paint applied virtuously to canvas and is even more than music, let alone Debussy with his 24 preludes, The sunken cathedral, Moonlight and Water roses. In a recent interview, pianist Vestards Šimkus said that now is a time when there is a special need for Debussy’s music, he played those 24 preludes and considers himself a person who needs nature to live, to feel and understand himself and this time.

Dace Lielā's exhibition Paintings will help us welcome spring, it will be open to the public until April 26.