Urubici, tall pines

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Urubici, tall pines, oil on card, 14.5 x 18 cm  unavailable

Painted in the afternoon.

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Many thanks to John "the lad" Collins and Tielle for their excellent company in the mountains this weekend.

 

 

 

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Five recent sales

A poor neighbourhood, oil on card, 11.7 / 14 cm   SOLD

 

Houses on the way the Joaquina beach, oil on card, 14.1 / 10.4 cm    SOLD

Joaquina, oil on card, 14 x 12 cm  SOLD

Warehouses on Jane Street, Leith, oil on card, 9/ 12.5 cm  SOLD

Praia Mole from above, oil on card, 16 x 12.5 cm  SOLD

Five recent sales here in Florianopolis. Please contact me if you are interested in any of the works on this site.

In rememberance of Clancy

In rememberance of Clancy, oil on card, 16 x 16.5 cm

Not dissimilar to other flower pictures: I shall experiment more with the backgrounds in future.

Mafra, Santa Catarina

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 A distant farm, oil on card, 16 x 12.5 cm

 A view of Mafra, oil on card, 14 x 12.5 cm   - available

 Mafra, simple houses, oil on card, 14 x 14 cm   - available

billowing of paper in middle of picture (above)

Mafra, man with a back pack, oil on card, 18 x 16 cm - unavailable

Mafra is a smallish city in the North of Santa Catarina which merges with its neighbour Rio Negrinho across the river. Its inhabitants are largely Polish and Ukrainian in ethnic origin and there are various very Eastern-European looking wooden buildings there, a big Ukrainian church and blond people. 

It`s prettily sited on a series of wooded hills, which are where I did most of my work. I could, I think, have spent a few more days here quite happily, although the food was dismal and costly (though don`t they say, "bad food is always expensive" ?): I had a particularly vile hot dog (what Brazil has done to the hot dog would cause nervous breakdowns in Frankfurt) and a foul Burrito. But the town seems orderly and prosperous and has none of the squalor that mars so much of Brazil.

I had originally intended to return to Florianopolis via Lages, but felt that this would, without a night`s rest somewhere, ìnvolve far too much driving in  one day.  I regret now that I didn`t consider this properly when planning, and added another day or two to my itinerary, as I was therefore forced to return via the route I came: via the tedious expanse of Teutonic suburb towns that stretches from Joinville to Brusque to Blumenau and Jaranagua. And the area between Lages and Mafra remains, for me, still somewhat unexplored.

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 The pictures are mostly quite good, if occasionally generic in composition (especially the first and third). I am working on a larger scale these days, and  am feeling very confident.

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Saco Grande, a white house

Saco Grande, a white house, 13.7 x 12.7 cm  - available

Painted on a pretty road running behind Floripa shopping.

The road to Itacorubi

The road to Itacorubi, oil on card, 12.5 x 12 cm

A very pleasant day for painting.

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I have bought tickets to Minas Gerais, where I shall pass Christmas, and Salvador, where I will spend some days in late January.

Preparations for a journey to Mafra

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Unpainted pochades: it is fun to have a range of sizes and shapes

Another of Brazil`s innumerable public holidays (I count fifteen annually) is approaching on Friday: Proclamation of the Republic, and given the atrocious standards of political  leadership in this country this really should be a day of collective national shame, better  commemorated by mourning and self-flagellation than the usual parades by Brazil`s hilarious military, who have only been tested in modern times by campaigns against other Brazilian citizens and with relief work in perilous Haiti and bits of Brazil.

But that is by the by- I shall shall pass my weekend making make another little trip into Santa Catarina: this time to Mafra. My idea is to  take fast coastal 101 and cutting in west after Joinville along BR301.

I`ll sleep there, then drive south via Itaipolis and picking up BR290, passing trough São Cristóvão do Sul and possibly sleeping another night near Lages, before returning on the BR201 to Floripa.

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If you wish to join me for refreshments somewhere along the way, drop me a line.

 

 

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