Cock-a-doodle-drew

We're almost on the longest day of the year, and I've been in Portugal, making use of the extra daylight house by crafting the curves of my very own Portuguese rooster:

I learnt there's a whole legend behind these familiar frangos.. or 'galos', if I translate 'roosters' correctly. Cocorocó!  🌅 🐓

What Sundays are made for..

Indulged in a full day of gallery-ing yesterday at the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum. Was particularly enchanted by the setting, with multi-tiered windows and playful gardens. 

Was refreshing to see a whole load of work by predominantly Portuguese artists that I'm not too familiar with. Highlights include:

- Revelo-colagem by Manuel Baptista (1973) 

- The undulating (and perfectly positioned) La Mer by René Bertholo (1971)

- You know when you try and flatten out some chocolate foil? And it's really satisfying? Well, there's that. And then there's this - Sombras e chocolates (joaninha) by Lourdes Castro (1965)

- I also couldn't resist this - Life Class B by (the admittedly British) Allen Jones (1968) - which really wouldn't look out of place in Oliver Bonas.

Just yes to it all.

Museu das Artes de Sintra

Have been doing a lot of travelling this month, between Leeds, Lisbon, Magoito, Madrid, Miami and New Orleans, but managed to sneak in a visit to Museu das Artes de Sintra.

Found this cement rucksack that sums up how heavy my bags have been feeling: 

Also saw this lovely (badly photographed) complimentary set up:

And this sculptural piece, which was reminiscent of the nearby gardens at Quinta da Regaleira:

Finds on Feriado

Back from 10 days of holiday/family-ing in Portugal. Spied a few things along the way that I'm sharing for future inspiration. Apologies for the poor photography - Had hoped to be able to find better images of the artworks online but I've failed, likely due to my poor ability to search effectively in Portuguese.

At an seemingly pencil-themed exhibition in Guimarães, I found Ana Pérez-Quiroga's delicate acorn bobbins... 

I also enjoyed this calmingly confident use of white space from Ana Guedes. (Ignore the reflection if you can).

And then these clever interlinking hands by Julião Sarmento.

At MAAT in Lisboa, I loved the palette and anonymity of João Gabriel's work. 

There's also an installation here by the afore-mentioned Pérez-Quiroga.

And at the Museu Nacoinal Do Azelejo, I lusted over these beautiful coloured tiles, which form part of a bigger composition by Querubim Lapa. #getinmykitchen

Tiles

I've spent some quality time drawing some lovely Lisbon tile patterns, inspired by recent trips and this excellent collection. Here is one of many little sketches, of which there will be many more. I feel a project coming on...