Newsletter  154
August 2018

Nature has now changed into a golden prairie and the fruit harvest shifted from prune to grape. 
August started with a heatwave with temperatures well over 40o C (104 F), days for the early birds as well as the night birds to experience the cool hours. The heatwave ended on 6 August.

The residents for August are: Greg Hrbek (writer; USA), Nico Huijbregts (musician; Holland), Yvonne Halfens (ceramist; Holland), Victoria Cattoni (painter; Australia), Maureen Drennan (photographer; USA), Paul Gagner (visual artist; USA), Theresa Wilshusen (mixed media; Spain), Sabine Harrer (scientist; Germany), Ida Toft (new media; Canada), Gerry van der Linde (poet; Holland) and Helen Butler (painter; UK).

White Works is the title for an exhibition with Phil Moody (USA), running from  29 June until 15 September, in the Palácio dos Marqueses da Praia e Montforte, in Estremoz. On the opening was a speech by Ruben Martins (prof Geoscience on Evora University) and a musical contribution by Daniel Catarino (guitar).
Phil Moody came in 2014 and 2015 for making photo portraits of workers in the marble quarries. Very exceptional was that Phil got permission to make a photos of workers deep in a marble quarry of Estremoz.  He printed eight 2x2m photos. To make them more than documentaries he fragmented each photo into 250 "tiles" printed them on pages of old geology journals (dating from 1830 until 1950). This written information shines through the image. In addition he made a brochure where these images are combined with information on marble: the history, geology, economy and especially the life of the workers. He is especially interested in the stories of retired employees: they started when it was common to bring water to the workers with a donkey, they experienced the booming of the marble sector, but also the decline and the structural crisis of this sector. A beautiful co-incidence was that photos of the quarry in 1901 are in the archive of the municipal library. These are also included in the exhibition.
The slideshow on this pages gives an impression of the works and the exhibition.  

Becki Buchanan (UK) used acrylic paint on plastic PVC canvas to make an impressive series of ten 1.30x1.30m works and some smaller ones. Starting with no plan and working largely intuitively she made abstract, colourful paintings that seem to express energy and optimism. Although the viewer thinks to recognize suggestions for a concrete object or a meaning, for Becky the major goal is to find a proper balance in composition and colour.  A selection will be exhibited on 23-30 August in Centrespace art gallery in Bristol under title: Abstract Artfulness - Perceptions of Portugal. Becky made a beautiful video clip that shows some of the works and her sources of inspiration.
Becky started every day around 7am and seemed to have infinitive sources of energy. Apart from many hours of painting, she had time and energy for nature walks, jogging, swimming, Ping-Pong and piano playing. 

Also in OBRAS-Holland art projects were executed in June:

Debby Hill (Australia) was inspired by the urban and natural landscapes in the direct surroundings of her residency in Holland. She was intrigued by the forms of the trees (nature) and the old remnants of the industrial time of Renkum (manmade chimneys). Her work was an investigation in relations in both time and space: the connection and disconnection between these natural and urban elements: 50 years ago the brick factories cleared the trees to mine the clay and now the ruins of these factories are overgrown by trees. Or more often they together have created a mysterious, often romantic scene with both manmade and natural elements. Debby made drawings, in a sketchbook, but also on stonework and in antique books and music scores.  In addition she made small ceramic objects.

Also Julie Keating (Australia) had a residency at OBRAS-Holland. She got fascinated by the street of the residency and collected information on its recent history through literature and talks with neighbors. A century ago a nearby house was home for several famous landscape painters another was a sanatorium for children with tuberculosis. 
Another study object of Debby was the nearby woodland (“a pleasure park and a place for fairy tales rather than the frightening forests of Australia”). She made hundreds of drawings and small paintings. Her still lives and landscapes were also color studies, she especially analyzed the greens and blues of vegetation and skies.

In July and August Yvonne Halfens and Nico Huijbreghts (both from Holland) are having residencies at OBRAS-Portugal. Yvonne is working on her exhibition in the fortress of Evoramonte (see below) and Nico is composing for a mans-choir. His composition will be about suffering and mourning. Although it is scheduled to get its premiere in the Holy Week, it will focus on cultural and mental aspects rather than on religion.

Peter Bremer

Peter Bremer and Nora van Dam (Holland) are professional artists but came in July for a holidays. They nevertheless found the atmosphere and inspiration for a productive month: Peter (visual artist) made a series of water color paintings on isolation foam; abstract but with lots of suggestions of objects. The water impermeable base gave the paintings a special effect. Nora (writer and actress) worked on an audio-novel in which a child tries to get grip on her life by collecting words.

Yvonne Halfens

Yvonne Halfens (Holland) will get an exhibition of her ceramic work in the fortress of Evoramonte in 25 August - 30 September 2018. She prepared a beautiful artist statement for this exhibition:
My portraits do not refer to a concrete person, but to his reflections on human being. I created this exhibition after a few experiences in Portugal.
Recently I saw in Évora an old wooden statue of a saint, with an unknown creator. The statue was beautiful, but the woodworm had made it a masterpiece. The decay and the imperfection gave it history and extra quality.
Many Portuguese churches have statues of saints, consisting only of a head and chest on a wooden frame where the dress had been draped around. Somehow shocking to know that so much holiness is based on a few wooden slats. But it is also so much more human than it seems.
When you read the classical philosophers, it is surprisingly clear that nothing has changed in our psyche. My portraits in this exhibition are often forgotten people are often forgotten people, sometimes eroded by time. But also earthy, timeless, ordinary and unique, just like us.

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Also good to know:

Duncan Hill

Duncan Hill (USA), resident in 2017, was selected to participate in an exhibition later this year in Ponte de Lima (North Portugal) with a mysterious photo of the petrol station of Estremoz at night.

Akiko Wakayama (Japan) is currently exhibiting in Berlin  part of the works that she made during her residency in 2015. Although it is a group exhibition one of her works was chosen to highlight the whole show: an impressive tableau of paper tiles, depicting the nature of Evoramonte, including the fortress of Evoramonte and our cats. Akiko got inspired by the azulejo walls of Convento São Paulo in Redondo. The slide show gives an impression.