Tuesday, March 7th,2023

The advantage of longer trips is that time limits are not a barrier. You can sit with your coffee and croissant and just watch people.

I am at Por Do Sol, which is listed as a cafetaria e artesanato, which is a cafe and crafts place. I haven’t seen any crafts, just post cards and trinkets . touristy things, It serves some light meals and definitely coffee and this is the shop where you buy lottery tickets. I see a lot of people doing that.
A lot of the locals come to drink coffee, and have their snacks & cigarettes.
I came back home and went back at the watercolours. I am improving slightly. Neal Greig said to me in a message: Just ignore the rule book and play. I certainly can do that. That’s one thing I’m really good at. I’m starting to understand how to paint in the negative spaces and then to soften the edges so that I can indicate the big waves that hit the rock so powerfully. I love that kind of an image and I would love to be able to capture it in watercolour. I feel pretty confident I can do it in oil. I can limit my palette.I’m very good at that at home. I paint with Paynes gray and yellow ochre or raw sienna quite easily. Add a a white to my palate especially if it’s bone white and I’m good to go. I don’t know why I didn’t think of just bringing my limited palette of oils with me. It would have been so useful. But then what do you do with the paintings after? It’s not like you carry them home with you and I don’t think there’s a market here for buying artwork.

Below are three works I started today. Lots to do yet.

Since the fight two nights ago, BC has been howling, all last night and what I considered talkative now is much louder and annoying. Is it mating season or is it an announcement of “this is my territory?” I don’t know enough about cats that are entire or un-neutered.
There’s another cat responding from the trees on the perimeter of the property at times. BC seems to be standing his ground even though he looked like he was battle-worn two nights ago. Maybe this is his first sign that he is a dominant male! And maybe I’ve woken up a monster!
He hasn’t left the property. It’s kind of interesting to see his reaction but his howling is irritating to put it mildly. I wonder what the new people next door think. They are a family of five from Czech Republic. They have a lovely three year old. She likes the fact that I miaow back to BC and she does it as well now and then laughs.

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My two friends are now on their way from Dublin to Lisbon. In about an hour an a half they will land, take a hotel and tomorrow morning grab a bus south to Zambujeira Do Mar. Tomorrow afternoon we will celebrate their long journey.

I got a message today from a friend, that a former Scarborough Board of Education Visual Arts Coordinator died recently. His name was Bill Stadnyk. He was an outstanding Arts advocate and was working at a time when art education was encouraged and supported enormously .