Aberdeen: warehouses and yards

 *

Warehouses, and multi storey parking- Raik Road (?)

 oil on card, 25.2 x 23 cm - available

This is closest I get to Sironi. But I want to get closer still.

*

A little drive south: Urussanga

 *

 Urussanga

 

 

 

Urussanga, Rua Pref. Lucas Bez Batti - availabble

 oil on card, 24 x 28.3 cm

 

 
 

 

Urussanga, Rua Pref. Lucas Bez Batti- detail

 

 

 

Urussanga, Avenue, Praça Anita Garibaldi

 oil on card, 22 x 24.3 cm - unavailable

 

Urussanga, Avenue, Praça Anita Garibaldi- detail

 

Urussanga is one of those well-maintained interior towns that you don't hear much about. It's got some lovely old (for Brazil) architecture and feels very safe. It's friendly.

The day became overcast. I like empty urban spaces and I like a certain dream-style city art- as in Sironi and the city paintings of Whistler. 

Hence:

 

Urussanga, R. Pref. Jacinto de Brida, oil on card, 29.7 x 27.5 cm - unavailable

 

 

 

 

Urussanga, R. Pref. Jacinto de Brida- detail

 

 

 *

 

Getting out of Florianopolis was very good for me, and I'll try to do some other road trips in the next months -  it's so costly at the moment to fly anywhere that this is the best way to give me the change of scene that I need for inspiration.

 

*

 

 
 

Paintings from Chicago- Part 1- out of the Loop

*

Wicker Park, overground railway, oil on card, 20.5 x 23.6 cm

unavailable

The paintings from Chicago divide into Loop, West Loop and non-Loop.

Chicago is constructed on a plain extending from Lake and based on a grid system of great regularity with large blocks. It has a fine overground railway system and there are magnificent old factories and warehouses- I`d love to work more with them if I`m ever back in the city. These large, usually cubic, buildings, stark in the sun, are ideal for developing a simplified style based on flat planes of colour. 

Chicago, Western Avenue, railway crossings and warehouses

 oil on card, 18 x 16 cm -   available

This, above, represents the bolder style -much influenced by Sironi and I am very pleased with it.

View down from an apartment on Madison, oil on card, 23.2 x 20 cm

Japanese Garden, Lincoln Park, oil on card, 18 x 22.5 cm - unavailable

*

Painting in Trindade/ the blocky style - blocks, Trindade

*

Blocks, Trindade, oil on card, 20.5 x 25 cm   available

Painting in Trindade

There are an increasing number of new blocks, none of which have much aesthetic merit or even interest. But I am trying to find something in the patterns of their facades. The older architecture isn't that interesting either, to be honest, but there are one or two older houses which have a certain charm. 

It's good to work around here, to walk to destinations and to feel that one is discovering ones own neighborhood. 

I'm working larger. I want boldness, a poster-like quality, like those famous Deco posters used for tourism advertisements- I'm preparing for Chicago which I shall try to paint in a broad and audacious manner.

*

The Blocky Style
or
 fat crude lively pictures... 

The pictures here are larger than I have painted for a while and the idea is to construct a new style

The features of the new style are- 

1. thick outlines describing elements

2. clear colours

3. limited colour range

4. simple geometrical shapes 

5. cheerful storybook atmosphere.

To assist working on a larger scale I reduce to palette to four colours- a blue, white, a yellow and a warm dark colour such as a red or brown. This makes mixing easier. I use big fat brushes too. It might end up looking a lot like Sironi but less sad.

*