A drive to Isla do Mel and Curitiba

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Florianopolis to Curitiba via Pontal do Sul

 

 

The idea is to visit Ilsa do Mel via São Francisco do Sul, then head to Curitiba and return via Balneário Camboriu. 

The driving time is, in total, 12.5 hours but that will break into four much more manageable stages.

 I suppose nine days in all.

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Nocturne: Curitiba

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Nocturne: Curitiba, oil on card, 12.5 x 11.5 cm unavailable

This was painted back in 2011 on a trip to Curitiba, but not put online. It seems strong to me: very Munchian, but that's hardly a criticism.

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A weekend in Curitiba

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 Just off Rua Tibagi, oil on card, 12.7 x  11.5 cm  - available

 Hotel Roochelle hotel suite, oil on card, 10.5 x  14 cm   - available

 Curitiba nocturne, oil on card, 14.2 x  10.5cm

Rooftops, Curitiba, oil on card, 9.6 x 8.1cm   - available

Four new pictures from last weekend trip to Curitiba, where they are having an art Bienal: some very good shows. The art infrastructure there is good.

The city itself has fewer and fewer charms for me with each visit: the massive dominance of anonymous corporate hotels and conference centres, which contrast strangely and bleakly with innumerable seedy lanchonetes (diners) whose food is so bad that Macdonalds seems good in comparasion. And then there are the malls, those monstrous and charmless shopping malls...

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Paintings from Curitiba, Parana; Curitiba

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Three from Curitiba, with wristwatch for scale

 University of Parana, oil on card, 12 x 9.5 cm

 A tower, Curitiba, oil on card, 9.5 x 11 cm  - available

A residential area near the civic centre, Curitiba, oil on card, 10.9 x 9.5 cm

I spent the weekend in Curitiba, that strange capital of Parana, which seems to suggest a North American city I always think when I am there, this is what parts of Chicago or St Paul must be like, because of the city's grid plan, its Central and East European ethnic base and barbecue restaurants and pick up trucks to be seen parked here and there.

The city is mostly well maintained with less of the dilapidation, squalid unplanned housing and grafitti that blights other Brazillian capitals. However, in contrast to the extremely elegant modernism .that dominates the Civic area (including The Neimeyer Art mueum is excellent, with well curated shows, and pleasant Sunday atmosphere) parts of the town do have a definate seediness: especially towards the bus station. Also, there are also lot of people sleeping rough in the parks and squares.

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Of the pictures above, the block seems to represent a sort of breakthrough for me, breaching into a speedy strip cartoon style that such buildings merit, I think.

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Wall of a sports club with water tower and spotlights behind; The School of Paris

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Wall of a sports club with water tower and spotlights behind, oil on card, 13 x 9.2 cm  - available

Today's painting tries to do something with dry oil paint for texture: when I see crumbly oil paint I think of Utrillo, that almost forgotten School of Paris painter.

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I wonder how the School of Paris painters will be judged in generations to come- my feeling is that they will be judged rather harshly. I suggest this because I fear they will be regarded as mere picture-makers: criticised for not tackling more dramatic subject matter; for a parochialism, indeed.

My feeling is that modern tastes demand the extreme, the perverse, the discomfiting, and that the so-long fruitful dialogue between painting and furnishing- which underpins much School of Paris work, is even despised..

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I shall be going to Curitiba this weekend- I hope for good weather. There are often good exhibitions there.