Serrana: a single tree, framed

*

Serrana: a single tree, oil on card

 9.7 x 8.5 cm , framed SOLD

Thanks to Irene for this photo

*

A trip to Serrana

*

 Serrana, from the outskirts, oil on card, 15.5 x 12.5 cm unavailable

 Serrana, hillside, oil on card, 12.3 x 10 cm -  unavailable

 Serrana, hot day, oil on card,  11.5 x 14 cm   available

\

Church, Ribeirão Preto, oil on card, 15.5 x 13 cm  - available

Five paintings from a trip to Serrana, and the larger town of Ribeirão Preto- the interior, where foreigners do not go, and mostly don`t go for good reasons- religion, country music, rotten architecture, endless  sugar cane production, boredom and more boredom and that asphyxiating provincial claustrophobia- lots of it- making Florianopolis seem cosmopolitan in contrast.

*

A trip to Egypt; thanks; thoughts; Morocco

*

  A view of Richmond from Ham, oil on card, 13 x 9.5 cm   AVAILABLE

Rose Issa will be showing the Egyptian pochades at the Dubai Art Fair, others were taken by the Union Gallery, Edinburgh. 

*

I regard the quality of work from this trip as markedly higher than from the Italian trip that preceded it in September 2012,  and on the same level as the week in Serrana, at the end of 2012.

Why so? In Italy I experimented with larger sizes of pochades- the result was often to disperse a certain concentration that a smaller picture can direct. There was an additional problem, which was that I was not visually surprised by Italy: a condition that nullifies creativity.

*

I want to thank those who helped me on this trip: Rose Issa, Chris and Anci, Lise Colyer, my parents, the staff at the Victoria Hotel, Cairo and, the two nice German couples -one in Luxor the other in Aswan- who, perhaps unknown to them, cheered me up immensely  when I thought things were going pear shaped.

*

The next trip will be to Uruguay, followed, most likely, by Morocco and the UK.

*

Ham House in Winter, oil on card, 9.5 x 11.2 cm unavailable




*

A week in Serrana 3

 Serrana, earth, houses, oil on card,  14 x 12 cm unavailable

 Serrana, earth, houses in carrier

 Serrana, heavy weather, oil on card, 9 x 13 cm - unavailable

Serrana, chaveiro, oil on card, 10.5 x 12 cm - unavailable

The last grouping from my Serrana trip. The region around Serrana has a very dark red soil.

The last picture, of the Chaveiro, or locksmith, illustrates the sort of jerry-built buildings that are almost usual in parts of the town.

 Next trip: Egypt.

A week in Serrana 2

*

Serrana: a single tree, oil on card, 9.7 x 8.5 cm    SOLD

Serrana: a distant factory, oil on card, 14 x 14 cm

Serrana, a distant factory in carrier with phone for scale

The second group from my days last week in Serrana.

*

A week in Serrana 1

*

Serrana, Aveunue, in carrier

Serrana, Aveune, oil on card, 14 x 13 cm

Serrana, yard at the back of a hotel, il on card, 10.5 x 8.7 cm  - available

Farmland, Serrana, oil on card, 14 x 12 cm - - available

The first entry from a week in Serrana, S.P.

Serrana s a small town, set in rolling hills and containing a huge number of speakeasies- little bars using the front rooms of houses- and churches. Both are popular with the locals, as is driving battered cars up and down the streets playing country music at great volume.

The place is slummy, even by Brazilian standards, with junk lying here and there and a general atmosphere of squalor as soon as you get away from the central church square.

 Everyone there seems very content.

A trip to Serrana, Sao Paolo

*

Serrana, evening, oil on card, 7 / 10 cm - available

Serrana, a lively little town near Riberaõ Preto, where I passed the weekend. The town hasn't yet seen the incursions of shopping malls, condominiums and car culture.