São João :: Porto

This June I went to Porto to celebrate São João, the city saint patron. It is the biggest party in town and it was just beautiful how I was welcomed everywhere.

Sharing here some of the things I did and some of the drawings I've made there.

Miss'opo is Guest House & Gallery with a nice Restaurant down town.
The ambience is very urban and arty. The company was perfect with my friend Angélica & the food was great! I decided to incorporate the receipt since we asked for a beer and that, in Lisbon is called Imperial and in Porto is called Fino :) Love it! The cards are all different and hand made.

The weather was great and perfect for city strolls.

 One of the strolls I did was this one, organized by Fundação Serralves (making part of Serralves's anniversary commemorations).
Very talented musicians, and poets worked on a sound piece from Kaffe Matthews for a bike ride from Ribeira to the Lighthouse.
I went on the last day possible! On the 23rd! The city was so crowded, because of the party, that was hard to ride the bike in certain parts of the route. Apart from that, the initiative was great and made totally sense to me to associate that river line with a story and sounds. It changed my romantic view of Douro and made me wonder on how much we pollute nowadays.

The night ended up in Sonoscopia with a beautiful party with nice music & with an amazing sky, full of colours with the paper balloons!

<3 Porto! 

La Yegros @ Vodafone Mexe Fest

Every year, Vodafone Mexe Fest provide us the chance to chose a music route during two days in the axis of Avenida da Liberdade in Lisbon.

Here is a drawing I've made live from La Yegros 

La Yegros was a nice surprise.
Apart from the happiness of the band color outfits, the music sounded like Argentina was traveling around :)

One could find the influence of Cumbia, Tango, African music, Brazilian music (Lambada por favor!!) and hip hop, but you know what? They sounded like something else, their own thing.

The background of my live drawing was inspired by Aztecan Prints.

Hugo Antunes @ Jazz.pt

"O mosquito era essa doença encarnada,
as picadas, barbas de milho alvoraçadas.
Nascer do dia, brilhante, fluorescente e a
tarde era nos dedos patinagem,
patine cerosa só para a
diversão, pergunta intermitente
dormente na situação picadinho
no acto, sem culpa nem pressão, era
essa coisa: prata no turbilhão..."

This is the text I wrote while listening to the double bass player Hugo Antunes concert playing along with Carlos Zíngaro (violin) and Miguel Mira (cello) at APAV.

I was delighted I finally had the chance to draw Hugo, since we know each other for so many years and I never had the proper chance to do it.

Hugo is all about several things happening at the same time and that's why I chose to put text over image, and two hands on it, also reminding he is a Gemini. He's fast and he's funny and his ideas and effort to make it work on this gig where remarkable. Also to remember the idea of gathering these 3 string instruments was his. One misses this type of combinations! And I just wish they will play more because it was a joy to watch.

Find my drawing here and the article on Jazz.pt about this concert here.

The Concert was organized by APAV/ Nuno Catarino

Rainy Day

It was a fortune.  

No rain. I was walking, the sky was dark dark dark, and the street was steep steep steep. Suddenly this house with bougainvilleas - that by its color was already a painting - came across my way. 

I stopped for a moment, time enough for a rain storm to start.

My rainy day was made. 

Marcelo dos Reis at Jazz.pt

This drawing and text were made live at A Barraca Abana Fest.

Marcelo dos Reis was playing guitar with Pedra Contida project. 

All of them so talented! 

The text was inspired by the sounds he was making and his movement while playing. 

The layout came up like this since I thought of the children tales, being Marcelo a cat who has a tasteful sneaky dance. Magic!

See the drawing here & also the article on Jazz.pt (in portuguese) about the festival here.

Renato Piau

This is the right hand of Renato Piau who last met with me while he played guitar with Luiz Melodia in Lisbon.

The pattern I created was inspired by his trade mark berets.

It is his birthday today, and I have postponed posting these 3 drawings on purpose for the occasion, so Happy Birthday dear Renato! May the blue sky and the ocean always inspire you!

Find Hard Musica's concert review & pictures here.

Luiz Melodia in Lisbon

Made this portrait live from Luiz Melodia 

He was light everywhere :)

Find Hard Musica's concert review & pictures here.