Scenery from Cardeal and Indaiatuba

There is a vast area of sugar plantations with a well-to-do city called Indaiatuba, about an hour and a half bus ride north of São Paulo, Brazil. Nearby, there is a quaint village called Cardeal, which not a car dealership but the Portuguese word for Cardinal. In the painting you get a good vista view of rolling hills of sugar cane dotted with dense trees.

Sugarcane fields Cardeal, 6 x 7.5" watercolour, January 2026.  

 

This is the side view of an old train station in Cardeal, its long defunct but still maintained for heritage. A number of stray dogs were running about. The photo is crooked... when I get back to Canada I will scan the collection and update the images. 

 

Old train station Cardeal, 6 x 7.5", watercolour, January 2026

 

 

Back in Indaiatuba, Cilei and I were staying with a friend who lives in a gated community. Surrounded by a high wall with barbed wire, electrical wire, and a face-recognition gate, it was rather like staying in a medium security prison, with nicer furniture. The houses were a stark contrast to other homes I had seen in São Paulo, these were designed by architects, fully plastered and painted, with expensive landscaping and fancy cars parked on the open driveways. Kids played on the streets. It was like being in Canada, but a lot hotter. 

Gated housing, 6 x 7.5" watercolour, January 2026 

 

Standing in the blazing heat, trying to soak in as much as I could, I did a last scene from inside the gated community. Strangely enough I felt more anxiety standing here painting, everyone was glancing suspiciously at me. Was there a no painting rule I wondered? The wealth and class divide is very obvious in Brazil, in a large part its due to the after effects of colonialism. This community had little by way of diversity as compared to the other neighborhoods I stayed in, so you get the idea. They also had an affinity for vintage Volkswagen beetle cars, we saw about half a dozen in here fully restored.

 

Inside the gated community vista, 6 x 7.5" watercolour, January 2026