The new Book is out !!!

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My long-time friend João Spratley is an excellent writer. He wrote a series of short texts in the form of traditional Fables, and asked me to illustrate them. This resulted in a short book, in French, that was published in 2021 (“Le Sourire du Chat et autres historiettes”). In the same line, we have just published a second (and last) book of Fables, also written in French (“Le Dernier sourire du Chat”), and also illustrated by me. I created a page Books im my main menu joaoavelarnet.org/books/ where you can find more details

Drawing session

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Yesterday, another model drawing session of the Lisbon Drawing Club. The venue was again the Roman Museum, more precisely the ruins of the old Roman Theatre. The model was dressed according to the place and historic time. , Nice session, a beautiful place with a superb view to Tagus, many sailboats under a bright blue sky. Some sketches from that session

Caritas romana

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Enjoying a walk in the Botanic Tropical Garden, in Lisbon, I was surprised by this unnusual statue of a woman breast-feeding an adult male.

    I looked for information about this sculpture.  This baroque statue was made in Rome by Bernardino Ludovici in 1737, and brought to Lisbon by king Joao V. “Roman charity” is a classical greco-roman theme, and it is based on the story of a woman trying to save her own father, condemned to death by starvation, by secretly breast-feeding him.

As you can imagine, a variety of interpretations of this subject can be found, some of them very creative…

Pastoral

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Reviewing my old photos, I found one that matches a well-known poem by William Carlos Williams

Pastoral

by William Carlos Williams

When I was younger
it was plain to me
I must make something of myself.
Older now
I walk back streets
admiring the houses
of the very poor:
roof out of line with sides
the yards cluttered
with old chicken wire, ashes,
furniture gone wrong;
the fences and outhouses
built of barrel staves
and parts of boxes, all,
if I am fortunate,
smeared a bluish green
that properly weathered
pleases me best of all colors.
No one
will believe this
of vast import to the nation.

from The Collected Poems of W.C. Williams, New Directions

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“Our ruins will never be so beautiful as the ruins left by our ancestors”. I don’t know the author of this statement but there is some truth in it. But we won’t be here long enough to confirm it.

Ruins are fascinating – they open a vast field for the imagination and they show that  some things take  longer to be destroyed than they took to be built. Below are the ruins of a sanatorium, from a century ago. It was never completed, and now those stones remain in a field of wild weeds.

Analog Photo Festival

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My submitted six photos were accepted for the exhibition currently taking place. The subject was “Freedom”. Here they are

Two groups of friends, with a peaceful river or a flying bicycle

A boy trying to run from his family – and to escape from the limits of the photo

An open space to breathe – or simply to contemplate

And the “Shtandart” a modern replica of an ancient Russian vessel. I was told that she is forbidden to return to St Petersburg, from where she left years ago. She is sailing around the world, teaching nautical and sailing crafts to young people. Forced freedom, to some extent, not being allowed to return home…