Luz neighborhood is at the literal center of São Paulo, geographically, historically, and and figuratively. One of the largest cathedrals in the world sits at its center along with the Sé metro station. A cultural museum called Caixa is also in this downtown core, it used to be the federal bank building. The bank began 260 years ago and still exists to this day albeit in new buildings. The museum contained all sorts of interesting banking artifacts like mechanical calculators, devices to print checks, old wooden desks and board rooms you could wander around, and the various lottery ball machines. The security guard gave us some extra information on the displays. It was neat to stand in the bank president's office, which would have been in its heyday the most powerful financial office in South America. Unfortunately, the downtown core is dilapidated with plenty of serious social problems. Our friend David was showing us the cathedral, museum, and then he drove us to the large market for lunch, then to Luz park where there is a modern art gallery, all kinds of trees, and walking paths. Driving in São Paulo was like being in a video game, the roads go in all directions and the weekend traffic was heavy.
The painting was done in Park Luz (Parque Jardim da Luz) while Cilei and David visited the second museum building. There were so many interesting trees that I decided to do an elongated montage of the park. Towards the end they sat in a bench waiting for me, unaware that I was up on the viewing platform painting the park. So I included them in the center of the painting. In the top left, I depicted a slice of the surrounding city and traffic illuminated by the setting sun.
Park Luz São Paulo, 8 x10" watercolour rough press, May 2023 (No. 3605)
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