NOWADAYS

Mixed midea on Canvas, 60X80

NOWADAYS

Mixed midea on Canvas, 60X80

NOWADAYS

Mixed midea on Canvas, 60X80

Last Year, I went to pompei, my purpose was essentially visiting 2 spaces: The Villa of Mysteries and the Mosaics of the House of the Golden Bracelet, but unfortunately I could not see them. (The first House or Villa is opening now).It was very disappointing but the idea was inside of my brain and what I really wanted to do here was to explore the so well-known Rosso Pompeiano or at least work with the explosion of a vivid red, and work the textures and feelings given  by the ancient walls present all over the city.

Really,  I'm not very concerned in representing the history of their figures or try to represent them in an accurate anatomic way. I don't want to make a perfect figure, or paint a representation near to the reality. What gains sense to me here is the brushstroke, the corrections made intentionally to be seen, scrape where is needed, charcoal over the painted area if necessary...things like that. 

Again the spirit of ancient walls, of purity, of the nothing present in the first works of the 1990's are back! Because this, was what they were. The works made in 1994 in Óbidos were an approach to the "matter", to the rough constitution of things, many times to the nothing the walls of Óbidos gave to me. These were times I constructed and invented geometric spaces and divisions,or stains of a simple hole I had seen in a wall.

Not all the works are finished (the first 2 are finished), but all the paintings I've already started need to be here in the present website: even if unfinished. (at this moment I believe they will be at least 6)

Not only have I been caught by the colours of those Frescos, but also for the modernity of some of their figures, which are very very modern to that time, and in the end they clearly exemplify the road I've been searching for more than 20 years. If you doubt, look at the first works, those red ones. Everything has a purpose, and the road to the sense is there and now here. Look at the their holes in

the ground, it is as if I already knew they would be present in my works 20 years later..

YEARS AROUND 2010-2015

Mixed midea on canvas, 80X80

No title, 2014

YEARS AROUND 2010-2015 (DETAIL)

Mixed Technique, 80X80, 

In this work I used varnish, metalic pigments, paint, charcoal, several things that made me laugh and amuse myself.

As my projecy is very extensive, it includes also the passion from the ancient Mosaics of the City of Pompeii. Here is a detail of some fishes invented by me after looking at one of the Mosaics present in ancient times in the House of the Faun (now in Museo Archeologico di Napoli).

YEARS AROUND 2010-2015 (A COMPANION TO THE PRIZE)

Another Assemblage with my canvas of 16X16.

Mix media on Canvas, 64X64

No Title

YEARS AROUND 2010-2015 (PRIZE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS IN LISBON, 2013)

Mix media on Canvas, 64X64

In December 2013, I won the Prize, of the  Saloon of the members of the renamed National Academy of Fine Arts in Lisbon (Sociedade Nacional de Belas Artes).

I decided to make an "assemblage", joking with my little 16X16 canvas, just like an ancient Mosaic.

In it, my interest in abstraction is present,  as well as the search of what is there, of what really remains of the things (in an universal sense) or of the ambiance of the places,  of what remains of people, and their habits and conversations - this now in a more philosophical venue.

YEARS AROUND 2010-2015 - PREPARING THE ROAD TO III

On duets

On Groups

YEARS AROUND 2010-2015 - PREPARING THE ROAD TO II

I started joking with my 16X16 Canvas like a puzzle :

On solo

YEARS AROUND 2010-2015 - PREPARING THE ROAD TO I

With these works (all made in Mixed Technique on Small Canvas of 16X16), my precious inner search of Abstraction comes to light (through its representation in the Canvas) . A search I have been following for years.

Not everything in here is abstraction, important as always is the feeling of the sensation. In this case, for instance,  the first little red canvas is inspired in one of the moments of the Eruption of Vesuvion on year 79 after Christ. Anytime I look at it, I try to think it gives everyone who sees it a sensation of warmth and movement.

These 3 works, and other one or two, represent a change.

Representation is as important as the opposite, but is a change because they are candies for me. With them I start to create my concept of the city of Pompeii. Ceramics, Roads, Geometric Mosaics, Frescos, Nature, Architecture, the textures present  on the ground, the walls, etc, everything becomes an object of interest and comes to life in a pictorial sense.

I Start doing lots of them, preparing the Road for an "Assemblage" that would come one year later.

YEARS AROUND 2010

Mixed media on Canvas, 80X80

(no Title)

The second work not finished is the second of 3 works representing a Zoom made to an Ancient Place of Pompei. More than representing Pompeii, is present the sense of the visualization of the space. 

 (fotografic zap of the space)

YEARS AROUND 2005 III

Fragment I, II & IIIMixed Midea on canvas, 60X70

YEARS AROUND 2005 II

Oil on Canvas, 40 X 40

In this work I had a special purpose: to give an ambience / sensation of warmth,  of those beloved ones that protect us. This specific painting invites us to a space and sensory shelter.

"Time does not stop"

Oil on canvas, 40X40

"Hidden Power"

Oil on Canvas, 40X40

In this one the several phases of the eruption of the Vesuvius and the ambience present in each of them.

"Pro fumo"

Oil on Canvas, 40X40

The smell of the "perfumes" is present here as well as the querubins of The House of Vettiti. The most important : the sensation given by the Colour.

"Consolidation"

Mixed media on canvas , 40 X 40

In the year 2007 I made my consecutive third Individual Exhibition. These were 3 hard years.



Because my professional activity is not beeing an Artist at Full Time (which I will always be), I painted in the weekend when I could 12 hours non-stop, and another pair of hours the other days.. this during those 3 years.

I made my second Individual Exhibition in the Câmara Municipal de Arruda dos Vinhos". The new Gallery was gorgeous and the works looked just perfect.


The Title of the Exhibition was "Imaginary Space" : This exhibition started the great cycle of works dedicated to a lost city and found in time, Pompeii. Splendor and decadence give here birth to a pictorial space, which floating on time, speaks to us about families (objects, professions, houses, etc), social habits , beliefs and passions. About a time when the walls whispered secrets and told people never ending stories.

YEARS AROUND 2005 I

In the Year 2005, I made an Individual Exhibition in the Gallery of the "Centro de Documentação em Lisboa". For that exhibition I wrote for the first time a Text for its catalogue.In the first years I never enjoyed writting about my painting because I really like that people feel and realize what they have to feel overlooking them, without additional words, but the grotesque change of the society and the behaviours that were coming from it, forced me to that. This was my text (in portuguese):

O Sentido da existência e a dualidade ocidental entre homem e natureza constituem, nesta exposição, as principais interrogações. A vivência numa sociedade que apela para o domínio, a conquista e a posse, em detrimento de valores como a humildade, o respeito e a espontaneidade, afastam-nos cada vez mais da Mãe Natureza, enquanto entidade não artificial (e não material), e da nossa própria Natureza enquanto seres puros e verdadeiros.

A falta de compreensão, partilha e união tornam-se, inevitavelmente, uma consequência. Cabe a cada um dos presentes questionar-se se pretende, ou não, procurar uma mudança, uma transformação (em si), que o leve a partilhar uma nova filosofia e um novo estado de existência: o da harmonia e equilíbrio.

Na sequência do que foi anteriormente mencionado, visionam-se aqui três etapas de trabalho.

Numa primeira fase, elementos arquitectónicos sustentados por referências (à cidade de Veneza) e conceitos (como o da inteligibilidade) reforçam a importância dos ensinamentos dos antigos.  A simplificação das formas, inclusive das cores e do seu tratamento, enfatizam um estado de despojamento e pureza: o estado primitivo das coisas. 

Numa segunda fase, a intervenção de figuras mascaradas, envolvidas por uma forte gama cromática, convidam-nos à observação e contemplação. Entenda-se, aqui, observação como aquilo que vemos, e contemplação como aquilo que acabamos por descobrir quando nos envolvemos com o que vemos. O uso da figuração, cores fortes e pinceladas fluidas apelam, então, para diferentes dimensões: para o mundo exterior e interior, objectivo e subjectivo; para o que somos e deveríamos ser; para o que vemos e deixamos de ver; para o que somos e não somos; em suma: para a  possível transformação.

                                                                   

A terceira, e última fase, nasce da admiração e influência do pensamento tradicional oriental. Mediante os ensinamentos dos antigos sábios e da prática de Artes Marciais, desvela-se a Natureza enquanto essência (de cada um - natureza individual) inserida numa grande Mãe Natureza (natureza exterior). Do equilíbrio e respeito por ambas dependerá, precisamente, a nossa mudança e evolução como seres humanos e sociais. A ligeireza do carvão, as cores fortes e suaves em uníssono, as noções de espaço, o uso de elementos metafóricos (como a linha ou a montanha) manifestam essa preocupação e libertam-se numa procura. A procura pela desconstrução de ideias e artificialidade das coisas; a procura por uma nova consciência; a procura pelo equilíbrio, pureza, clareza e verdade dados pelo desenvolvimento da espiritualidade. 

Marisa Noblejas, Fevereiro 2005  (Text)

Palavras Caídas" (Fallen Words)

Oil on Canvas , 81X60, 2006

In 2006, my visit to Naples would change the path of my paintig. The ambience of Mount Vesuvius will deeply take possession of it. The same research of the past arises here in a very hard way. The magic behind its walls, the antiquity of things, the essence of things , and even the removing of material, gains here great expression. In this ambience I discovered my passion of the ancient city of Pompei which I have studied  since then. I discovered a civilization, but more than that, I found a "perception" "almost a sensory perception that has allowed me to travel in time.


That travel gave me the name to the Solo Exhibition I made in Belém under the Title "Fallen Words", words that are never said for lack of courage, fear, decency, madness or lack of opportunity. Words that we feel in the soul that belong only to ourselves and nobody else.

YEARS AROUND 2000 V

Mixed midea on canvas, 

100x35

YEARS AROUND 2000 IV

Mixed midea on canvas, 

100x35

YEARS AROUND 2000 III

Mixed midea on canvas, 

100x35

YEARS AROUND 2000 II

Mixed midea on canvas, 

100x35

After creating the work "Final Judgment" inspired in a Mosaic found in a Basilic of Venice, I decided to creat each figure separately.

As mentionated in the Text I wrote for an exhibition  :

The intervention of mascarated figures, involved in a strong chromatic spectrum , invite us to the observation and contemplation. Undestand here observation as what we see and contemplation as what we dicover when we become involved with what we see. The use of figuration, strong colors and fluid strokes appeal to different dimensions:

to the exterior world and the interior world, objective and subjective;

to the importance of wisdom in our lives;

for what we are and we should be;

for what we see and we stop seeing;

for what we are and we are not;

for what we feel or not;

in a word, figures who appeal to an inner space but also for a  possible transformation or outcome.

YEARS AROUND 2000 I

"Inteligibility"

     Mixed midea on canvas, 100 X 80

YEARS AROUND 2000

"Final Judgement" Mixed midea on canvas, 85 X 70

YEARS AROUND 1990 V

After working about the Village of Óbidos, I started working about the City of Venice, after my 7 days of staying in 1995. In those years the essence of my Paiting was always conected to Venice, its Palaces, its mysteries and its colours.

In these works, architectural elements supported by references to the city of Venice, and concepts such as intelligibility, reenforce the importance of the teachings of the ancient and wise men of Antiquity.

The simplification of forms, including the simplification of colors and their treatment emphasize a state of purity and despoil: the primitive state of things (s we had already seen it in Óbidos).

Arquitéctónicas Imperfeições Ducais" (D.architectural imperfections)
Mixed midea on Canvas - 140X90

(diptic)

"Yin & Yang"

Mixed midea on Canvas - 100X100  & 50X90 

"Endless Search" 

Mixed midea on Canvas 110 X 90 + 110 X 30 (diptic)

Work based in the book of Thomas Mann "Death in Venice" 

"Endless Search"

Isto era Veneza, beleza

lisonjeadora e suspeita, Cidade

meio Conto de Fadas meio
armadilha para estrangeiros, em
cujo ar pútrido a arte outrora
florescera luxuosamente, inspirando
aos músicos sons lascivos e embaladores.
Ao aventureiro era como se os seus
olhos bebessem essa mesma Voluptuosidade,
como se o seu ouvido fosse envolvido por
essas melodias;

Imagens e percepções que fácilmente
seriam marginalizadas por um olhar, um
riso, uma troca de impressões, ocupam-nos
mais do que é necessário, aprofundam-se no
mutismo, tornam-se plenas de sentido, são
sentimento, emoção, aventura.

YEARS AROUND 1990 IV

Oil on Canvas

Mixed Media on Canvas

YEARS AROUND 1990 III

Oil on Canvas

YEARS AROUND 1990 II

Some of the final students of the third and last year of the course of Painting in Sociedade Nacional de Belas Artes in Lisbon 1994, went to a stage in a Villa outside Lisbon, called Óbidos. Curiously, the city council received us warmly and we had a very happy and unique stay. I worked in 5 days more than in several months of work.
It was very special, and my works were put in the principal hall of the collective exhibition we made there afterwards. Some of those works were bigger than myself. I have not repeated it, but Huge Canvas are my passion. Here I show you, 2 of those works.

YEARS AROUND 1990

Oil on Canvas 1X38 X1.18

Oil on Canvas 1X30 X1.15

I love these works. We hate them or We love them. There is no middle. 

These ones have never been exhibited in public. 

(made while I was a Student in Sociedade Nacional de Belas Artes)