Eyes that seek the Unseen
Henri Michaux wrote “Faute de soleil, sache mûrir dans da glace” – When there is no sun, know how to ripen in ice. That is a good advice, not only for the incoming Winter, but for one’s general attitude towards life. I tought this was a good subject to be illustrated in my first steps in linocut. Or it can be seen as just a plain winter landscape. The linoleum plate on top, the resulting print below.
Another composition with the glass eye and table-tennis balls
Zantedeschia aethiopica mirabilis .
Grows spontaneously in some dark places (such as the consciences of mass murderers, genocide perpetrators, tyrants, dictators…). It is an invasive species.
Bonjour Mr René M
The unexpected find of a bowler hat in flea-market. The hat was in a very good condition and was sent to the factory to be cleaned and to have the lining replaced. A small size hat ,nevertheless a good subject for a photo. I still have to try some different backgrounds – and a body with a better structure.
Another work in etching. A copper plate covered with a special varnish. A drawing is made on that varnish layer (in this case an imaginary portrait of the poet Fernando Pessoa holding a smartphone). The etched plate is bathed in acid – it burns the copper plate where the varnish was etched. The whole layer of varnish is removed by a solvent and the etched copper plate is inked. Excess ink is removed and a print is made. A sample of the etched copper plate and the resulting final print.
Drawing session last Monday
Some fast sketches of live models, brown chalk on paper
The Mermaid nun again. With the same copper plate used for the first etching print, an experiment trial of aquatint technique was tried. Three different layers of varnish were used, with the copper plate being “bitted” by acid in the intervals, Finally, blue ink was spread on the copper plate and the print was made.
This technique allowed in this case three diferent tonalities of blue ink to be printed. It is possible to do more, if one has the patience to repeat the varnish layers and acid exposures.
By French cartoonist Sempé
Inspired by a some surrealism with a small pinch of dark humour
I assigned this image under the category of “Still Life”… It is, in my opinion.
A long street was finally embelished wit a variety of graffiti and mural paintings along its decaying walls. I went there yesterday and took some photos.
The artists were invited by the City Council and they were given total freedom to paint whatever they wanted. This a good way to change an uninteresting (even depressive) street in a sort of public art gallery.
This week-end a Graffiti contest took place near where I live. A long street with empty decaying walls was invaded by many street artist. I was there at the beginning, last Saturday
I will return there next week to photograph the finished work (Part 2)
“Contrasto” is an anual event in my neighbourhood.
It is promoted by an active group of neighbours, and promotes socializing through music (plenty of music) , small workshops, activities for children, art exhibitions, a market of home-made artisanal products, eating, drinking and dancing until 10pm.
There is an active participation of all the neighbours.
This year I had the idea of a “Get wings ! ” project.
I made two pairs of wings and hanged them. People could be photographed in front of those wings – instant photos were taken with a “mini-Instax camera” and the subjects collected them by the end of the day. Different results, this camera is quite tricky and very sensitive to light variations, but the idea was appreciated and the participation exceeded my expectations.
Today, September 4th, the centenary of Surrealism is celebrated.
To celebrate the date, two photos from the “Red Nails” series.
Red Nails and Banana
Flowers, new and old
Happy celebration !!!
At Art’s Garden, an exhibition of fabric decoration made from plant leaves and stems, using the natural properties of plants to leave marks on the texture of the fabrics. Some mannequins, or their parts, helped to compose the set. A few of them called my attention.
An exhibition of photographs by Daniel Blaufuks at the Museum of Architecture Art and Technology (MAAT) in Lisbon. I selected two of many photos exposed. A few hundreds of small instax photos, isolated or paired, with hand-written, printed or glued captions.
From the introductory text by João Pinharanda :
“We created time and immediately felt hemmed in and devoured by it. Memory is a betrayal of time. We have always tried, without success, to escape it, to negate its erosive influence – a Sisyphean task in which Blaufuks, who exposes to the world the weight of the myriad epochs and memories (family, personal, historical, political, cultural, …) he carries, participates.
Some more information here https://maat.pt/en/event/daniel-blaufuks-days-are-numbered
I have just finished two oil paintings. Two examples of too much imagination – deserving a much better painting technique…
”The Acrobats” (oil on canvas) with three ascending figures coming from nowhere and pushing themselves upwards.
And “Thaurokathapsia” (oil on plywood), a modern imaginary version of a lost Minoic art.
The Acrobats
Taurokathapsia
From “The Man with the Blue Guitar” by Wallace Stevens (1879-1955), a fragment from part XIV.
“…A candle is enough to light the world,
It makes it clear. Even at noon
It glistens in essential dark.
At night, it lights the fruit and wine,
The book and bread, things as they are.”
For those interested, the complete Wallace Stevens poem inspired, in the seventies, the series of etchings “The Blue Guitar” by David Hockney – well worth to be seen.
Just by chance I was surprised by a book of drawings by the poet Sylvia Plath, edited by her daughter Frieda Hughes . High quality drawings most of them in pen and ink on paper, also some pencil sketches, made in England, France, Spain and the U.S. Sylvia Plath had art tuition in her teens and she used to draw during her life – many of her poems were said to inspired by visual artworks. One of her drawings
Harbour Cornucopia, Wisconsin (from Sylvia Plath drawings, edited by Frieda Hughes, Faber & Faber, 2022, London, U.K.)
This drawing brought to my mind one of her poems
A Winter Ship
At this wharf there are no grand landings to speak of.
Red and orange barges list and blister
Shackled to the dock, outmoded, gaudy,
And apparently indestructible.
The sea pulses under a skin of oil…
The complete poem can be found here https://allpoetry.com/A-Winter-Ship
João Avelar images 