A trip to São Bento do Sul: Part 4, Campo Alegre; Videira

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  A trip to São Bento do Sul: Part 4, Campo Alegre

 

 

 

 

 Campo Alegre, houses and trees, oil on card, 28 x 26 cm  available

I painted this quite quickly. I'd like to do more like this on a  larger scale. I was inspired partly by those Hockney paintings of Hollywood Hills from the 1980's, such as "Nichol's Canyon". I love how the landscape is piled up in these pictures and  how you can trace your way along roads snaking across the bright painted surface.

 

 These are huge paintings over 2 by 1.5 metres. My efforts must be more modest: I simply don't have the space to store large paintings.

This was the last painting on a very intense painting trip: I hadn't been off the island painting for over a year. I've been using painting to explore Santa Catarina for a few years now- a process that can never end. But I feel I can gain at least a loose familiarity with much of the state.

Videira is the next likely destination. It's about 7 hours drive though. This a trip would have to take about three days to be at all worthwhile.

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A trip to São Bento do Sul: Part 3, Campo Alegre

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 A trip to São Bento do Sul: Part 3, Campo Alegre

 

 

 

 

Campo Alegre, fields, oil on card, 26 x 28 cm unavailable

 

 

 

Campo Alegre is even more German than São Bento do Sul, with a stillness about it, and I think all talking there is done in whispers. Actually, I often sense that stillness in the German towns in the interior: sometimes it feels like an absence. I wonder if anyone else feels that?

There are two exquisite small churches and a funny cafe with little booths, a throwback to the 1950s.

 

 

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