Breathing in Painting

Am passionate about the ocean: it’s an inspiring force for my art. Sailing is an intense way to travel and connected to the elements, in order to arrive to good port, we must learn to read the signs and act. Free diving takes me to the underwater world, where I’ve always felt at home. Am particularly fascinated by the sensory capture of the underwater world. How to transmit pictorially the physical sensations of the body among the elements? The light through the water column, the sounds travelling far and reaching us strongly, the temperature and its variation depending on the currents and depth, the darkness and the pressure as we descend, the taste of the water, the strength of the swell, the different levels of visibility. The magical encounter with the marine life, impresses me the most! Beyond the sea, there's other sources of inspiration. The fiery force that shapes the land. The rich forests, the sinuous curvy-linear contours of the landscape. The transition between hot stones and the cold sea. The warm dry air and the fresh cool forest. The luminosity of the atmosphere throughout the day, varying with the dancing clouds. The mountains, and the wild life. I currently paint from three very different settings: Faial Island, in the Azores, Columbia Falls, by Glacier National Park, in Montana, USA, and Lisbon and Algarve in continental Portugal for shorter periods of time.