João Hasselberg - A story to be told

Last Tuesday, João Hasselberg and his band gave an intimate concert at Culturgest.

I was thrilled with his last album, Whatever it is you're seeking, won't come in the form you're expecting (Sintoma Records) and it was one of my fav cd releases in Jazz.pt lists back in 2013.

This concert was in between his last album and his brand new one, coming out soon. I'm charing the drawings made from that.

In my drawing, thoughts, feelings, travelings, love letters and mysteries make João Hasselberg's story to be told. To do his portrait I searched for the original cover versions of each of the books that inspired his first album tunes. (Check them out here) Its ambience inspired me to draw and look for some old decal lettering of my Type collection inherited from my Dad. I wrote the titles of each book backwards so that only A story to be told could be properly read. Loved the new tunes too. Anxious to hear the new album!

Loved Diogo Duque who was playing trumpet. I thought his playing was poetically plastic so I decided not just to draw on his portrait but to also incorporate painting, with some elements inspired by the shirt he was wearing that night. It was a really nice surprise.

Imagined Luísa Sobral living in the story of a dress print, with flowers and stars, in a lovely afternoon to the flavor of a sweet coffee. Bucolic as she is. 

João Firmino's appearance was brief but had a purpose. He added freshness to the group. Looked at him and just thought of tropical breezy colors for him. Ahhh, suddenly life is good and he was simply great. 

Joana Espadinha opened and closed the concert. It was a grace of the birds. 

Beautiful and sweet, her lips sang pink dreams. Ooooh... can you do that magic again? 

Bruno Pedroso I haven't seen you for quite a while and do you know what? I truly missed it. 

I thought it was so beautiful how he played with the group. The world could be ending, but he'd make you laugh and feel safe. 

While doing this drawing I had in mind American Graffiti, Matt Wilson's School Boy Thug and Bruno's never ending style dancing: still! Always inspiring.

Bruno has a specific drum style, his own. I think I had almost forgotten what's that special thing I love in music. Thank you for reminding me that.  

Some people are irreplaceably unique, and I think he's one of them.

Thank you Pedro Costa for curating such nice concerts and Culturgest for trusting my work.

Inner Tour Blog featured in Ilustração Contemporânea Portuguesa

Inner Tour Blog is featured today in Ilustração Contemporânea Portuguesa Facebook page, dedicated to promote Contemporary Portuguese Illustration. Great work these guys are doing.

Check it out here!

Lamparina Art Residency Catalog is now available

This summer I had the privilege to participate in the Lamparina Art Residency that culminated in an exhibition in Alandroal - Nas Margens de Lucefecit | Experimentar o Lugar.

If you don´t have a clue what I'm talking about, take a look at the article I wrote about it in June.

Congratulations Ana João Almeida and Sérgio Carronha for the organization, idea, hard work and motivation and the 16 artists that participated: João Rolaça, Francisco Costa, Catherine Henke, Rita Garcia, Manuela Domingues, Nuno Almeida, João Mouro, Maja Escher, Tiago Raimundo, Joana Reais, Mariana Veloso, Sérgio Fernandes, Fernando Roussado, Jorge André Catarino, Pedro Coelho and me. It was a success!

The e-catalogue is ready and you can check all the beautiful works done, here.

The days and the nights of João Botelho

The nights of João Botelho

João Botelho is one of Portugal's acclaimed auteur cinema directors. His new project is the film Os Maias, based on the novel, with the same title by Eça de Queiroz - a masterpiece of Lusophone literature. To give life to the story he chose some of our elite actors. The result is a film that premiered on the 11th of September, and is already one of the Portuguese third most watched films of the year, with already over 40 000 spectators.

Sábado Magazine interviewed Botelho to know a little bit more about him and his last full-length film so I will not extend too much on this topic because you can get all you need to know in the fun and ironic article written by Raquel Lito and see all the important moments of the interview with the beautiful photos taken by Marisa Cardoso. You'll have the chance to read the online report version later or you can buy the magazine, that is out today, here. 

Making The nights of João Botelho

Making The days of João Botelho

It was real fun to do this work, specially the one with the hand where I needed his active participation. After all, I was drawing live my favorite Portuguese film director. 

I pictured João Botelho in diptych mode, with day and night versions.

On the night drawing above, the vague blue was the inflated air representing the perennial hours, the never that might be tomorrow.

The days of João Botelho

Right handed, João Botelho, lent me for this drawing one of his framing tools. Verbiage elevated to the level of a terrace never has been an obstacle to have an open window to see the poetry of the sky.

Although he told me he rarely remembers his dreams, I think his films have the ability to make others do so, including me. Long live films like João Botelho's - His composition sense is remarkable and his films are living light paintings. If you're not familiar with his work, it is worth to check.

Thank you Raquel for inviting me :) It was so cool to collaborate with such nice team players, Raquel Lito and Marisa Cardoso, both talented people with a "ready to work" attitude.

All photographs on this post are from Marisa Cardoso and were used with her permission

My drawings of Jazz em Agosto Festival

I specially love Lisbon in August – no traffic jams, and loads of tourists intoning the language of the streets.

This beginning of August was no different from others before, where I have postponed my vacation time to see some great concerts in Gulbenkian Foundation. And what a big music programming they had.

Just to name a few, major musicians like Evan Parker, Marc Ribbot, Fred Frith, Franz Hautzinger, Hamid Drake, Keiji Haito where playing there.

I had the privilege to be drawing live for Jazz.pt where a selection of the drawings I’ve done was published. 22 drawings of 10 days of festival are worth a word about each one of them.

Take a sneak peek below.

Day#1

James “Blood” Ulmer was playing, the moods where high for the first day of the festival. The lens of his sunglasses reflected blues as he and his band made me travel to some 70’s psychedelic experience.

Day#2

Evan Parker has proved his skills as a first class leading musician. I had the privilege to participate in an Artistic Residency with him some years ago. His circular breathing inspired me to do a spiral wired Evan.

If time were a mechanism and the piano were a clock was the sentence that haunted me all concert long, while Matthew Ship pitched the piano, with patience and mechanic precision. I used a special technique on this drawing to make the ink peel. 

Day#3

Ladies and Gentleman we are heading to the Ceramic Dog Saloon here. The beginning of their concert was a mixture between folk, blues and rock. It led me to the idea to represent the trio with a Texas Saloon swinging doors like and the trio (Marc Ribbot, Shazad Ismaily and Ches Smith) in a progressive ochre gradient. 

Day#4

Marc Ducret’s playing fading into a labyrinth was my idea to portray his Real thing#3 music based on Vladimir Nabokov’s book Ada.

Day#5

Luís Lopes Lisbon Berlin Trio was a high moment of the festival for me. Luís was playing with an Orange Amp which led me to the color theme in this drawing: orange and black, irreverent and rocky as he was.

Christian Lillinger‘s long punky fringe was the pendulum to his movements – performative and vigorous. There was an acid mustard tone while his mind spun fast. Sehr Berliner indeed.

Day#6

Franz Hautzinger’s Big Rain was my favorite concert of the festival. I think it was because I was so hooked to each band member’s performance: Franz Hautzinger, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Hamid Drake and Keiji Haino – a real luxury.

With such monsters (in the good sense) playing with Franz Hautzinger, I envied his sense of poetry and silence, listening to others and making rain interventions. He is the mentor of this band and so I decided to write him a poem about his music. He personally helped me to translate it to German (Danke Franz!)

When the rain comes

And you are Air

Through

And the floor

Moves

And the Earth

Opens

The trumpet is crossing Franz. I first saw live Franz, 10 years ago in this same festival. I was also drawing him and the Regenorchester XI. It was a concert I will never forget. It changed my life.

The beauty of Keiji Haino resided in the black curtain of language less phonemes, of movements struck by a vertical lightening bolt.

Must’ve been a butterfly that was at Jamaaladeen Tacuma’s spirit that night. He was cheerful and gathered through the darkest with the lightest part of this band. While he was playing, I remembered many times of No Jive, funky and groovy as he is.

Hamid Drake was a mystical being that I had the luck to draw this night. In profile and front portrait, his enlightened omnipresence never failed to shine and make others shine too. Quite a hard task in any band, and particularly on this one, but he made it with distinction. I drew with both hands on this one.

Day#7

Fred Frith is one of these musicians that had impressed me in past concerts. He was sprinkling the sparks of the world with chains, brushes and another myriad of things he used to make sounds. I wanted this drawing to have a progression from a very graphic top, to a pen drawing and an almost invisible pencil sketch, almost disappearing.  It was just that little something from danger to almost insignificant detail he knows how to do.

It was the first time ever I drew two times the same musician in the same event. I always try not to, but this time, Hamid Drake’s performance was so outstanding and had so much to draw about that my ideas were just bubbling. It was the hardest working drawing I made from this festival. His mystical touch and creative sensitivity made me see the transcendental that was taking place right in my front. I drew his head live and then imagined an Egyptian divinity’s body with his magical drumsticks instead. I had to do some research since I wanted to paint with the colors and rules the Egyptians used (there was a whole color code) and write a hieroglyph meaning really something in old Egyptian. The inscriptions you see behind him mean something like: “Blessed by giving life”- That was exactly what I’ve felt he was doing: giving life to a noble art form.

Day#8

From the MMM Quartet, here´s the drawing of Urs Leimgruber from light blue to his shades of effervescent black. I also drew Alvin Curran but decided not to publish this drawing, maybe some other time. Loved his playing and electronics.

Day#9

From Massacre concert I drew Charles Hayward and Bill Laswell.

Pictured Charles Hayward space traveling in a science fiction story. His drum plates were galaxies he had to conquer with his bright sight.

Bill Laswell was the connection rope between this trio. This guy has done it all, dub, hip hop, drum ‘n bass, jazz-grindcore, experimental music… He was the air relating a world of water and fire. I could elect him as one of my idols of this festival edition.

Day#10

My image was Marco Barroso’s profile being perceived by the sound and the light of the brass instruments. How can someone combine heavy metal, groovy beats, folk and experimental music? Ask Master Marco. He’ll sure find a way to amuse you mean time.  There wasn’t a moment where I had no fun in this concert. Great ending.

Was really happy to draw José Menezes, Miguel Amado and Gonçalo Marques. Three musicians on the road for quite a while which I wanted to draw long time ago.

Simple and clean, this one is the saxophone player José Menezes.

And this one is Miguel Amado. The bass grooves where the lowest but Miguel was the tallest of them all. I wanted to to a portrait of him with a boomerang shape movement.

I saw Gonçalo Marques’s coming out of his trumpet, ear shaped in a cloud. I used just pencil which I have very rarely done before.

I also drew Nuno Martins who is a photographer of Jazz.pt. Part of the festival too :)

I was so proud of my Portuguese friends who played at this festival. Big up to Luís Lopes and Marco Barroso. 

As usual these days were super intense with an overflow of new music. It is sure one great reason to visit or stay in Lisbon in these period.

Thank you Jazz.pt team and Gulbenkian team for trusting my work.

Relax in Ericeira

Last weekend was time for a break in Ericeira. I'm sharing here my favorite things there, the drawings I've done about it and some of what I have learned too.

Its name Ericeira, comes from Ouriceira, the land of sea ​​urchins (Ouriço = Urchin in Portuguese).
One stumbles into these sea urchins till today, and while going to the Empa beach, I was amazed by the beauty of the colors of the varied sea weeds present there. Light brownish kelp, light green, red and garnet sea weeds, the color palette seemed a living watercolor.
I took a garnet one as a memento to this beauty and did this drawing: the beautiful see weed that amazed me by its color, who happens to be side by side to the sea urchins (which I chose to draw the shell) who gave name to the famous Ouriços, the typical cupcake from Ericeira.

It was a delight to eat those while there! I have tasted several and my favorite ones where the Ouriços from Café Central made by Manuela Estevão who bakes them since 38 years ago! Amazing!
Café Central is in the centre of the Village in a square known by Jogo da Bola.

I haven't been there since I was a kid and went on vacation with my friend Carol and her family. It was really funny to return to this square and notice the scale differences! The trees seemed huge at the time!

The extinguished pastry Casa das Cavacas was said to be the fist place who ever made this pastry delights, and the first to have a TV in Ericeira. Old stories reported by the nice and chatty waiter of Café Central, Sr. Manuel. It sure made a difference to be waited on with such sympathy and hospitality. Definitely recommend it and I will come back, but next time I think I will buy a whole 10 Ouriços's pack or so!

Other delights of Ericeira's typical food include sea food dishes (like Lobster Açorda, for example Açorda da Lagosta) and fish dishes as Caneja de Infundice. (Dogfish dish)

Indeed, Ericeira used to be a fisherman village but nowadays it is very famous by its Sports Life too: Surf.

As the World Surfing Reserve stands for, it proactively identifies, designates and preserves outstanding waves, surf zones and their surrounding environments around the world. This is the case of Ericeira, that back in 2011 - and along with Malibu and Santa Cruz, in California, and Manly Beach, in Australia - was chosen to be the first World Surfing Reserve in Europe.

Due to its outstanding conditions to surf, Ericeira has hosted important events like ASP World Tour and Quik Silver Pro Portugal.

The village overflows Surf and sea related items everywhere: the surf schools, the hostels, the street fashion, the film festival, the music festival... If you are in Portugal and are into this sport this is definitely the place to go.

I was pretty privileged since I had three super guides - Alexandre Costa Cabral, Duarte Bettencourt and João Guedes who generously received me on their Community Surf Hostel and gave me the best tips to enjoy the most.

The Community Surf Hostel started with three friends who had the passion for Surf, for Ericeira and for receiving others as part of a Community, and hence its name. I loved their informal tone.
Nil, who makes part of the staff was great too. Everybody was always helpful and friendly.

The three of them are experienced Surfers (João was the National Surf Champion in 2009) and will teach you how to surf or improve your skills if you're willing to. You can also try Stand Up Paddle. They actually even have a special offer, the Wave Hunters Pack thinking on this. Check out their prices here. And if you want to know some more Surf meanderings in Ericeira, its story, waves, beaches, swell and wind conditions, among other details, please check this out.

The hostel, just in front of Coxos's Beach, in Ribamar (is also very close to Ribeira d'Ilhas and São Lourenço beach) has a nice sea view, a fully equipped kitchen ready to use, and a little garden with a hammock in a tree, my favorite part of the decor.

I have to say I was impressed with the amount of work that these three had made in only two months so that the hostel was ready in time for this summer. I'm glad you made it because it is now the most comfy new place in Ericeira!

The famous Coxo's Beach wave has triggered the whole World Surfing Reserve application process. The Coxo's Beach, or literally the Lame's beach has several possible funny stories behind its name. Some claim that back in the days, the access to the beach was so rough (not anymore!) that people seemed like limping; others allege that after a shipwreck took place there, its lame Captain came ashore and was mistakenly shot. The beach was supposedly named Coxo's Beach in his honor. Some others yet say its high iodine levels took people with bone problems to visit it, looking for a cure. True or false, Charles Lepierre, a water expert chemist, considered Ericeira the most Iodine concentrated point of the Portuguese coast. Well, whatever the reason was, it sure entertained my imagination to search about it. 

In the living room there is a table to eat, nice blue couches, TV, books, and a guitar - loved that last one! Cheers up any place! The hostel's decor is breezy and the color stripes above turn out to be its interiors hallmarks. It inspired me to do this drawing with a wave taken from a Surf magazine I was given by Duarte.

One of the places they've showed me (yes, they went there with me!) was the Pizza Mobile Restaurant just in front of the amazing São Lourenço beach. The view of the restaurant is top.

Their relaxed mood and friendly tone led me to think about how that is present in the Surf world and how could I draw São Lourenço's name in a more informal typographic way: no serifs, no fixed widths and less color opacity. Had in mind too those days I devoured Sublime's music.

The paper table cover pattern was beautiful and the pizza I've ordered, great - it was half Rucola half Vegetarian one. (Check out their Menu here) I wanted to include some element of the restaurant so I started drawing during dinnertime and then cropped the paper table cover to finish painting it.
Loved the sight, the pizzas and specially the company, always with lively talking.

Night clubs and bars are pretty active in the region too. I was lucky that on this weekend, it was Barzinho's 26th anniversary and Ouriço's Sunset Party the next day. Ouriço exists since 1960 and is known to be the oldest disco in Portugal.

Yen Sung was in charge when I arrived. With her beauty and master skills in the music selection, I pictured her narrating and conducting a purple storyline. Like a Rhythmic Gymnastics Athlete, she made the music turn into a purple ribbon in the air.
No wonder she is a veteran, Yen makes part of Portuguese Electronic Music history since she started in the mythical Fragil and is a resident Dj in the most famous Lisboner disco worldwide - Lux Fragil - since its beginning, in 1998.
I loved the Ouriço club, its stunning view to Praia dos Pescadores (right in front), and its ever changing painted facade. It was just the happy day end I needed.

It was from Praia dos Pescadores that the Portuguese Royal family left in exile mode to England, when the establishment of the Republic happened, in 1910.
Talking about the Royal family, if you have time, also visit Mafra Palace-Convent, 10 minutes away from Ericeira. It is the maximum exponent of the Portuguese Baroque, built by order of John the V.
It's Library is famous as its stunning sculptures and Carillons. The construction took so long to built that an artists school was created there. Mafra gave visibility to Portuguese artists like Machado de Castro and Vieira Lusitano.
Also worth to know that this massive monument was the inspiration of the Nobel Prizewinner for Literature, José Saramago, for his book, Baltasar and Blimunda (Memorial do Convento in Portuguese).

Great to realize that 40 minutes away from Lisbon, there is such a mecca for Surf, a place full of history and tasty food with friendly people ready to welcome you.

Brundibar

Last day of the show, full house at Tivoli BBVA theater, and I was excited to see Brundibar Children's Opera.

I was going to draw live the play and wanted to make sure I was spontaneous enough; so I didn't check anything of the story before so that the drawings could be less influenced by previous information.

In the first moments, a documentary about the original cast of kids who participated in Brundibar (bumblebee in Czech slang) was shown. Its story is beautiful and the context is shocking. 

This opera was written by Hans Krása and the libretto done by Adolf Hoffmeister in 1938. It is also worth it to know a bit more about these two authors.

Hans Krása devoted his life to music and composition. Born in Prague, it seemed like he was just in the right spot to do so but his Jewish roots and anti-fascist ideas took him to Auschwitz where he was murdered on 1944, during the Holocaust. He was not yet 45 years old. Brundibar was his last work before he forcibly went to Auschwitz.

Adolf Hoffmeister managed to escape the Nazis, although he was is this role of fugitive almost all his life, first escaping from the Nazis, secondly escaping from the Russians when in 1968 they occupied Czechoslovakia. He lived in several countries and did many things in life, among them, he was an amazing fine artist. Check out some of his visual work here. He died with 71 years old in the 70's.

Brundibar premiered in 1942 in a Jewish orphanage in Prague for kids who had lost their parents during the war. Almost the whole original cast had been sent afterwords to Teresien Stadt, a place in the actual Czech Republic, nowadays called Teresín. Despite the harshness of the situation, the opera was a favorite and was performed there 55 times.

Brundibar is full of metaphors towards the Hitlerian regime (being Brundibar = Hitler) and it is still performed by many kids around the world nowadays. Who knows if its actuality doesn't suit for an Economical world crisis metaphor too.

The story is about two poor siblings who need milk to save their ill mother. In order to raise money, they start singing in the marketplace, but the local organ grinder, Brundibar doesn't like it a bit.

Meanwhile, thanks to a cat, a sparrow, a dog and the children of the school, they are able to finally send Brundibar away.

About 200 kids (students from the Lisbon Music National Conservatory) participated in this opera. I imagine rehearsing kids is a demanding task, but 200?! They were all outstanding, and touched me to the point I cried. (Alice and Benjamin I was so proud of you).

Bravo Bruno Cochat, Ruben Santos (Staging) and Teresa Cordeiro (Choir direction).

The orchestra also played an important role and I wanted to include some element of it on my drawing (the orchestra was directed by Francisco Sequeira). I chose the top of the double bass to represent the live music played, since in the middle of the dark of the orchestra pit, it was the only instrument I could see.

Thank you Uau and Helena Mascarenhas for your trust and enthusiasm with my work.

The most beautiful thing is when people are understood and can communicate happily; and all of you certainly did that.

Long Live Freedom :)