Itu, Brazil

Here is the only painting I was able to make on our recent trip to Itu, a small town in Brazil. It rained the rest of the time unfortunately. You can see from the sky here that the rain was just about to start. In this area shopping is the main sport, there are many stores selling shoes, clothes, sunglasses and everything you need to look like a surfer. Succumbing to the trends I also picked up some surf shorts and a cool T shirt at a local store called Montreal Magazine of all things! The buildings are mostly colonial-era architecture as seen in the painting, re purposed for retail.

What grabbed my attention for this scene was the colours of the buildings and how they contrasted with the storm clouds. The main awning featured in the middle was a salmon-brick red, the one beside it an emerald jewel green, and the building a cotton candy lilac. There were a lot of people walking too, but I omitted them for clarity, try to imagine a crowd, and motorcycles and cars going by constantly. The other plus was that there was a marble ledge in front of a store that I could sit on.

January 2017, 8 x 10" cold press watercolour