On what we though was the last day of the trip, I did this scene of a pink flower in a shrub outside of the locked gate of the family home. It seemed to be symbolic of São Paulo, a beautiful city locked behind tall walls, barbed wire and gates. There is a massive wealth disparity here, rich people fly to work in helicopters from their luxury condos, while poor people live in brick and tin shanties. Slavery only ended towards the end of the 19th century, in 1872 there were around 1.5 million slaves out of a population of 10 million people. With about 150 years passing, the wealth inequity is nowhere near to being leveled out, so the rich people build higher walls and taller fences. You can see my paintings from a wealthy area called Indaiatuba, rated the best city in Brazil to live in, where the houses are sleek and behind gated communities. Cilei's family is approximately in the middle class, they are well off enough to have proper houses and afford good education, which has to be paid for since the public education system is underfunded. The painting was meant to show the contrast of the sturdy steel fencing with a palm tree and delicate flower in the background.
Pink flower locked gate, 6 x 7.5" watercolour, February 2026
In this scene, a massive jungle tree is still visible over the top of the auto shop across the street from the family home. When Cilei's dad built the home about 45 years ago, the entire neighborhood had trees like this, and rain forest-clouds would form. It was a quiet jungle paradise. Now it is a densely populated built-up neighborhood right next to a noisy highway. But it still has the charm and great views, and most of all, its a family home full of love and camaraderie. We commented how a wealthy person living alone behind a gated community with millions of Reals to spend is perhaps not as rich as a person living day-to-day and surrounded by friends and family. All the same, we could have done without the motorcycles zooming by.
Tall tree autoshop, 6 x 7.5" watercolour, February 2026
Waiting in the departure gate late at night and out flight was cancelled due to mechanical problems with the airplane, better than when up in the air I guess. That meant another 5 hours of waiting in various lines to get to a hotel. The next day there was down time, so I made a few last painting, this one showing a biplane-installation, it was actually up on a pole like a monument, but I omitted the pole to make it look like it was landing. In fact, huge passenger planes were zooming by at very low altitude to land at the nearby GRU airport. Cars and a commuter train could be seen in the background.
Biplane near hotel, 6 x 7.5" watercolour, February 2026
Finally, I found a Brazilian flag to paint, seen in the center of the painting. The building had something to do with the airport, it was glass-paneled with plaster walls. So all of the Brazil paintings are up on the blog now, there was one more I did at the Buddhist temple that I added to the end of the blog here. I also scanned all of the paintings, re-uploaded the images for better quality, and corrected the typos and formatting issues I had while blogging on the phone. Back in Montreal its -17℃ and I have no desire to paint outside for the time being! Luckily it will warm up a bit this week. I will write a blog on the Brazil palette soon, there were some interesting things to talk about regarding paints. It was a good trip all in all with a bit of vacation, visiting, and working remotely all the while, and I have a sun tan to show for it!
Brazil flag near hotel, 6 x 7.5" watercolour, February 2026
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