My fourth Peruvian trip: Conclusions; Santa Catarina Road Trip/ Rio

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 Cabanaconde, mountain in sun (detail), oil on card, 24 x 21 cm

Six weeks in Peru

Peru is about as good as anywhere I know for a painter to wander around in. It`s fairly safe (at least in smaller towns away from the coast), the weather is clement, the people are pleasant and mostly respectful, it`s cheap and its very varied in terms of landscapes and historical sites. There are few cars in the rural places and you rarely feel that you are in a a big machine as is so often the sensation in developed countries. That is, in the west every place you go has a Visitor Centre selling tat, giving you directions and has signs all over sign saying things like Path may be slippery in the rain. Please use handrail, sufficient indeed to make you feel a piece of processed tuna at the the end of the visit (no thanks National Trust).

This trip was the longest I've done. Six weeks is a short university term, and enough time to exhaust some ideas and develop others. It`s enough time to develop a certain self-sufficiency too.

The main thing is I`m happy to be working on a larger scale now- however tricky that is for traveling around. It`s difficult to store pictures as they never quite dry completely. However, on a larger scale there is much more enjoyment in the physical manipulation of the brush.  And the final piece just has greater presence.

 So to this end I`m preparing larger supports and have built new carriers. These will be ready in about two weeks time. 

The next foreign trip in to the UK in August. Most likely it will be very different in tone as I`ll be meeting considerably more people, and having more conversations. As a confirmed misanthrope this isn't necessarily something to celebrate.

Santa Catarina Road Trip or Rio?

It`s necessary between now and then to plan something to break up my time here- most likely a drive in Santa Catarina, perhaps up to Videira, then to Xanxere  then to Passo Fundo in Rio Grande de Sul, a to cover corners of the state and of Rio Grande de Sul that are unfamiliar to me. That could be done over six days...or maybe it would be more fun to revisit Rio?

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Rio

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 Copacabana, early afternoon, oil on card, 12 / 14 cm unavailable

 Lapa, oil on card, 10.5 / 14 cm unavailable

From S. Teresa, oil on card, 11 / 15.5 cm unavailable

Here are some more pictures from Rio, where I spent the weekend.

It's really a spectacular place, with a very vibrant personality, and incredible views. It would be an ideal painting city were there better publicly accessible spaces high up, and if crime weren't a concern.

Rio is often very improvised and even downright sketchy: the other side of this is that it maintains a definite personality, it isn't groomed to the point of sterility for tourists like Paris, say. The people retain  their personality, which is ironical, good-natured, somewhat amoral, sensual.

I like the sense of Brazil as a place still being constructed, still being invented, and doing so in a way that emphasises a open-mindedness and gaiety.

I painted mainly what I call "tourist pictures", though I don't mean that in a derisory way. I mean, I visited fairly obvious sights.

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Rio: The Ibis Hotel room nocturne; painting nocturnes

Rio: Ibis Hotel room nocturne

 oil on card, 12.3 x 9cm - discarded

The view from the hotel is of some administrative buildings.

To paint these things you nee to find a way of  getting light on your support without losing your ability to see the thing in front of you. But this is surprisingly difficult, because when you illuminate the support, your motif will often fade out. I think I shall try to get one of those little reading lights that they advertise in magazines, usually with images of elderly couples in a double bed, one asleep, the other deep in George Eliot. That might be ideal: they have a little clip so you can attach them onto your book, or in my case, picture.

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Photographing these nocturnes is very hard, there are almost always reflections in one place or other.

Rio: Botafogo beach

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Botafogo beach, oil on card, 11.5 x 9.1 cm   SOLD

I wanted to capture the footballers playing on the sands, but by the time I had chosen my viewpoint and laid out my things they had finished their game, and after a big argument, departed. Actually ,I very rarely see arguments in public here: I seem to remember them being much commoner in the UK, and British life, despite it's reputation for calm, being far more fractious.

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Rio: from Santa Teresa

A view from the ruins, Santa Teresa, oil on card, 8.5 x 12.2 cm - discarded

From Santa Teresa towards the centre, oil on card, 10 x 8.3 cm

Santa Teresa is a beautiful neighbourhood with amazing views of the city, and nineteenth century architecture of immense charm.

Rio; selling work

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A view from Copaacabana, oil on card, 10.8  9.5 cm  AVAILABLE

My trip to Rio was a qualified success. I went to paint and see if I could find a gallery there to represent me.

The painting side went very well: after the first day, the weather was great, no-one mugged me, the natives were friendly and I came away with maybe five decent paintings: not a bad haul.

It's a great painting city:  insane mountains, sea, sunshine and very open people in a relatively small space. The people are friendly but not overbearing as they can be in the middle east. The only trouble is crime, and during the day, in the wrong place there's a fair chance you'll be annoyed by some kids trying to beg coins off you.

I spent Monday visiting little galleries in Copacabana and Ipanema. I visited about ten. There was some interest, but little real hunger. One of the gallery owners who liked the work remarked that it would be hard to display small paintings but it is clearly possible to use cabinets and group them to make them more prominent. I am confident that they will take off in the next two years.

I suspect there simply isn't a good art market in Rio. So I shall do what many have advised and make my way to Sao Paolo, and see if I have more luck there. The little pictures sell well when they are given the chance as gallery sales in Scotland and online show.

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Selecting for Rio

Forty-four paintings. I will select a dozen to take.

I shall truck round some galleries with my wares in Rio on Friday. I think the best thing is to take a variety.

I'm experienced enough to know that if some people like what I do, some never will. The opinions of those who dont really are of no consequence, because it is usually because they just don't like this sort of painting, however well or badly it is executed, and they are really not "on side". Ergo it's better simply to ignore them.

I will reduce the selection above to a dozen: to show more is to risk repetition. It is better for people to say, "I wish I could see more", then for them to say "ok i think that's enough". The paintings chosen should be bright and immediate. I am visiting totally on spec and I imagine that the galleries will not give me much time, if any.

The swamp viewed from Iguatemi shopping centre; Rio

The swamp viewed from Igautemi shopping centre, oil on card, 12.2 x 8.2 cm  SOLD

This was painted from the car park above the shopping centre. Sadly, they mainly used a sort of frosted glass or perspex to enclose the parking space, so there are few place from which to get views. I could paint from the restaurant area, or near the lavatories but it is annoying being approached all the time. 

You can see, in the distance, the same promentery that features in the landscape painted from the technological park.

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I think I will go painting in Rio later this year- it may be a mess of a place, but it is oh so beautifully sited.

A Broken Votive Head

The wax has a leathery texture; it feels almost greasy, slightly warm. It cannot be repaired.

The head was bought in Rio in an old baroque church in the centre. It is a votive head: Ironical that now it is the head itself that needs a cure. It was bought along with a votive baby, a hand and a man’s head. The hand and the man’s head too have suffered irreparable fractures.

If we see art as there to sustain forever what in nature decays then the image of a broken sculpture is more shocking perhaps than that of a real wound.

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I recall here a book: “Warszawa 1945”, a catalogue of images showing the German destruction of Warsaw during the war. The effect of this systematic vandalism seems somehow more alarming than images of dead people: even buildings are mortal! Likewise, in the UK, the destruction of the country house- excellently catalogued here - http://lh.matthewbeckett.com/index.html - is painful.