These guys have been keeping me company the past couple of weeks. I really can't explain it but there's something about big cats... Perfection in movement! Also my little ones, just as perfect, not as big.

Ainda BATH

Simplicidade e contentamento...

BATH - to become my birth city

We went to Bath this past weekend and realised that we're meant to spend the rest of our lifes there. Strange feeling when you deeply believe you belong to a different country, a different city... Here're some photographs.

Saudades...

Hoje foi uma daquelas Segundas-feiras dificeis... Em Portugues, por alguma razao 'e mais facil escrever as magoas, mesmo sem acentos ou tiles.
Quando me encontro, ou desencontro, sem fio 'a miada, desenhar 'e sempre o primeiro impulso. Algures, na luta por encontrar um traco, encontro-me muitas vezes a mim propria, ou pelo menos um vislumbre de um nicho, s'o meu, no futuro. Por isso, desenhos 'e o que terei para amanha.
E Terca 'e sempre melhor!

A selection of nudes from my 2007 exhibit. These are 600x1200 mm emulsion and enamel spray on hardboard. There's something about painting the women body on a piece of wood that's makes it more real to be. They seem to come alive, even though they're enclosured in a rectangle, struggling for air. I'm looking forward to beginning a new series, on the same theme, this time with an origami background. 3D cubes holding in their form and folds the feminine body.
Will post them soon.

A CHRISTMAS' CAROL

A sketch for a back cloth, hopefully to be seen this Christmas, in Cascais.
Foggy London, and a little bit of Dickensian Rochester.
Looking forward to painting this one, but I've taught myself not to keep my hopes up, because it's usually the ones I like the most that don't get made... To balance the ones I'm not expecting to make!

I must apologize to anyone who's been waiting for a long due update on this blog. As you can see from the work below and also from other to be posted at a later date, I've had a few very hard working months, where I almost didn't touch the computer (mainly because it was covered in plastic, paint and brushes...!).
Painting one flat at a time, planning the end result, flying the canvas to Portugal, mounting it onto the final flats, has been a challenging process!
In the next few days I'll also be uploading storyboards and sketches of coming work.
Thank you so much to everyone who's not lost faith in this blog!

MACBETH - Avalon Theatre Company, season 2008/09

And so here's MacBeth's castle: an empty thone, eternally awaiting a prince, an overlapping of courtyards, towers and arches, behind a tapestry of blood and gold.
The final cloth has also some stencil work, still missing from these photos.

MACBETH - Avalon Theatre Company, season 2008/09

Also for Avalon, a play for the older children (between 13 and 18 year old): MacBeth.
Here's the first sketch and an almost finished cloth. As with Cinderella, this one opens up (two centre doors) into MacBeth's castle, shown above.
Very different colours and a much more abstract drawing, as only Shakespeare allows the scenographer!

CINDERELLA - AVALON theatre company, season 2008/09

Just like last year's sets for the Avalon Theatre Company, Cinderella (children between the ages of 6 and 10) was to be a five flat back cloth.
Nevertheless, this time Cinderella's small room transforms into the Prince's ballroom, as each part of every flat folds back to reveal the main props: crystal shoes, ball gown, pumpkin...
In a school near you!