Estreito, Street

Estreito, Street, 15 x 11 cm, oil on card

I think this week at some point I'll make a still life arrangement of bright boxes and bottles.

This one feels a bit like a Utrillo, an artist whose work must have gone totally out of fashion as there don't appear to be any monographs on him currently in print.

Estreito, Miles Davis E.S.P.; grid plans I have loved; disorder

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Estreito- shops/ lojas, oil on card, 9.5 x 11.7 cm   - available

I drove across to the continent and worked in Estreito, a district with it's own atmosphere redolent of San Francisco because of the grid plan, and the way the roads undulate, sloping down towards the sea, but with the sense of decay, disorder and chaos that seems so characteristic of Brazil.

It isn't necessarily unpleasant: as I drove I listened to Miles Davis' E.S.P.: modal jazz seems analagous to the grid plan: a simple clear rythmic and harmonic plan underpinning individual solo expolations, and Davis' 1965 lp had a mood very appropriate to the hazy cool day: laid back, percussive.

The shops and street furniture are jammed together chaotically- using colour to compete for attention.

Two paintings from Estreito

lOverpass, oil on card, 12.5 x 10 cm

Estreito, Street, oil on card, 10.8 x 10 cm

Two new paintings. For the first time I drove over to the continent to see what I could find for subject matter. It's great to visit unfamiliar neighbourhoods: it's refreshing. I didn't realise how tired I'd got of the familiar streets near my house.

The picture of the overpass was painted first. The second is a response to the confusion of Brazilian streets, with their incredible jumble of telegraph posts, signs, wires and buildings of all sizes and shapes. I shall do a few more like this: they are great fun to paint, and show one that there is a sort of beauty to be found in the visual chaos. It's nice to work very fast and not to fuss with corrections so the effect is lively and fun and fresh.