Community Connections, Brazil

Communities by definition are connected within, and to the outside by roads. In São Paulo these communities could be seen along the highways, between the condo sky scrapers, and behind the shopping malls. Separated by only a few broken walls the houses were jammed in together, made from cinder block and red brick, with the occasional plastered and painted construction crawling up the hill sides. Here in the communities of Brazil, connected by washed out dirt roads, families live,work and play oblivious to the passers by.

This painting was done entirely from memory and some small sketches I made while in São Paulo. I wanted to capture the spirit of the community and depict the chaos of buildings cars and people. Among the where's-waldo-like design there are many details that are typical. The blue bucket shapes on top of the houses are rain water collectors, the satellite dishes are for TV, the musicians on the balcony are playing songs (imagine the voice and the instruments), the car parked up on the mountain side is apparently defying gravity, the kites are flying in the big blue sky, the condo buildings grow up on the horizon. But the one image that stuck in my mind most of all was a mother walking hand in hand with her child, slowly making her way up the steep, coppery-coloured dirt road. That seemed to say it all...

Watercolour 22 x 30 " cold press, December 2017