This page shows residents and their projects in 2025.
Recent residences are in the newsletter.
Other pages show residents and their projects in 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018,  2017,  2016, 2015,  2014,  2012 and 2013  and 2004-2011. 
A visual collage of residents is in this slide show.

This page tells about most of the residencies and related events that took place in 2025. The most recent are in the newsletter.

Rasma Puspure (Latvia), a jewellery maker, came to explore the possibilities of working with Portuguese marble. During her residency, she deepened her technical skills and experimented with creating wearable pieces of marble. For some of these, she collaborated with a local stonecutter whose daily craft is shaping gravestones. Particularly captivating was the installation she created to catch the sunset during the equinox: viewers were invited to gaze through six marble bracelets aligned with the setting sun.

Jane Flett (UK, currently based in Berlin) was completing the final edits of her second novel while simultaneously working on a third. The second is a grotesque tale laced with dark humour, it reflects on themes such as chaos and cannibalism. The third novel explores mysterious locations where inexplicable disasters occur—reminiscent of the Bermuda Triangle, though in Jane’s story, the setting is a remote desert. In addition, she was preparing a writing workshop she will lead in October.

Tim Gleason (USA) had a two-month residency. He worked on a show that will soon be presented in Palm Springs. His drawings were inspired by letters he invited gay friends to write, sharing memories of their first gay experiences and their life during the height of the AIDS epidemic. The result was a body of work that was layered both in literal and metaphorical sense: over drawings of love scenes and romantic landscapes, fragments of the letters were written on transparent sheets.

Gunnþóra Ólafsdóttir (Iceland) is a scientist specializing in cultural geography, with a particular focus on how nature affects human health and well-being. During her residency, she worked on an article exploring the impact of daylight on health—specifically, how urban planning influences human exposure to natural light. Using simulation models, she quantified how much light each home in a town receives. Her findings point to a troubling trend: since the early 20th century, exposure to daylight has been steadily declining due to wrong choices in urban planning. She is now developing recommendations for architects and city planners.

Elisabete Marques (Portugal) came twice to OBRAS: in April and in August, to work on a poetry project about weeds, named Erva Daninha. She considered that what makes a plant undesirable should be approached from a historical, sociological and psychological perspective, rather than from botany of agronomy. Contemplating about weeds makes you also thinking about ‘spontaneity versus control’, and in a broader perspective about the Anthropocene, environmental issues and culture–nature relations.
Elisabete is working on a poetry book in which each poem will get the name of a weed and a content that refers to a human or societal issue. 
Elisabete is also chief editor of Skheme, an online interarts magazine. She interviewed several OBRAS residents for an article, and Linda Buckmaster will get one of her poems published.  

Catherine Kueffer Blumenkamp (USA) is fashion designer and couturier. Most of her creations were made with tissue printed or dyed by Trish Ramsey (see elsewhere on this page). Her works are highly original: she makes dresses and robes out of a square or triangle that she folds and stiches, but hardly cuts. This approach comes from ancient times where weaving was such a laborious and costly work that clothes were preferably made with no loss of tissue.  While showing her creations in the patio, Catherine shared with us some secrets of couturiers: to prevent a binding from wrinkling, you should cut it at a 45-degree angle to the warp and weft. And to make a garment drape nicely, you can sew in little weights invisibly — or visibly, so that they also serve as a decorative element.

Frans van Lent (Holland) is performance artist. At OBRAS he made six videos of his personal experience while walking in nature: short, simple and serene.
Most videos are symmetric: it begins and ends with nothing and in the middle an activity takes place and disappears. In some cases he collaborates with another artist. For instance: on 2 June, 2pm he dipped his hand in the Ribeira de Terra, while at the same moment Martine Viale dipped her hand in the river Têt in France.
Another collaboration was with Beate Schnaithmann on cello. The work contemplates on the Doppler effect. 

Olivia Bliss (UK) is both jazz musician and visual artist. She came back to OBRAS after 16 years! 
Olivia held a visual art exhibition at OBRAS. Working title: Emergence — through redacted lines.
The work revealed silenced stories through found materials, memory, process and protest: a re-wilding of redacted and concealed information. Cyanotype and gelli print were featured alongside mixed media installation, and local materials such as cork, crochet lace and woven baskets. Incorporating local materials and culture into the art and meaning. 
Olivia also performed songs she wrote about censorship and protest, inspired by personal experience, both at OBRAS (piano & vocals) and sang in a local marble quarry.

Elleke van Gorsel (Holland) continued a project that she started in Norway and Iceland. She makes macro photos of plant parts. She extends the photo-prints with painting that seems to be part of the photo, and surrounds the photo with a painted or embroidered frame that relates to the subject of the photo.  Her work is in the same time delicate and powerful, intimate and expressive.   

Pluto Sotiropoulos (Australia) is a singer/songwriter. He worked on a project based on storytelling, subconscious and dream states. The results are the template for an album.
Generally, Pluto’s songs took the form of emerging out of and dissolving back into nothingness. Pluto impressed all with his intimate and introvert manner of singing. He accompanied his lyrics with simple acoustic guitar melodies.
Pluto also had a collaboration with Beate Schnaithman (cello) and in working on music for the performance of Ingrid Simons that was recorded on video by Pedro Cabral.

Linda Buckmaster (USA) came to work on a new novel. But she found so much inspiration for new poems that she decided to postpone the novel. Linda finished four poems and was working on another eight. As a side-project she collected some forty slabs of slate and marble, wrote a few poetic words on each, and hide them in the nature around the house.
Another side-project was a collaboration with Kimmo Ylõnen. This will be shown in an update of this newsletter.
In her artist talk, Linda paid attention to her recent exhibition on the history of cod fish, which relates New Foundland with Portugal (see also Linda on cod communities.     

Leon Biezeman (Holland)  came to work on a novel, a love story with blurring time lines and some autobiographical elements. Leon is dyslectic. Already for thirty years he is writing for dyslectic children; he published some six books.
During his artist talk he gave an overview of what is known about dyslexia and about his personal journey, starting from his early youth where he discovered that he was eager to read but just could not, until the present in which he is writing a novel.

Antonio Tavares was working at OBRAS in March. Four years ago, he met two residents at OBRAS: Anna Maria Achatz and Elisabeth Melkonyan, who run a beautiful art gallery in Innsbrug. They selected Antonio for an exhibition that took place from 18 March until 12 April in Galerie Nothburga.  He showed new work that was largely created at OBRAS. His next exhibition is in June this year in Badajoz (Spain).   

Larry Feign (USA, Hongkong, Portugal) was working a second historical novel about Shek Yang (1775–1844), a remarkable woman who rose from poverty to pirate royalty in southern China. Still being a child, her father sold her to a floating brothel. At an age of 26 she bought her freedom, only to be kidnapped and forced to marry a pirate gang leader. Due to her intelligence and leadership qualities, she brought competing pirate fleets together and defeated English, Portuguese, Dutch and Chinese armadas. She was also a skilled negotiator and strategist. She guided her community from piracy to a life of traders and owners of gambling houses.   
Larry is novelist, but may be even more a historian. He worked with proven facts and debunked many myths. The way he analysed and combined information, and his attention for details impressed his fellow residents deeply.
During his residency he analysed information about the life on flower boats. It proved that there was much cultural entertainment, rather than just selling sexual services. Larry found the scores of a flower boat song and during his artist talk Beate Schnaithmann played it on cello.    

Seema Lyer (UK, living in Germany) is first of all a writer, but she is extending her repertoire towards theatre and film. She wrote sketches as a step up for a film script; the working title is The Lonely Men Epidemic.
Seema is also working on theatre performances (spoken word, stand-up, improtheatre). She invited fellow residents for try outs of three sketches, all about councillors (a psychotherapist, a life coach and a school mentor), and all were cynical, absurd and very hilarious. 

Ginta Grübe (Latvia) describes herself as a conceptual jewellery artist. Her work is crafted from found objects and leftover materials, often blurring the line between adornment and sculpture. Some pieces resemble wall mosaics more than traditional jewellery. One striking example was a two-meter-long necklace composed of linked slices from the bases of dried palm leaves. She also incorporated cork, small marble blocks, and old iron sourced from the flea market. Volunteers among her fellow residents were eager to model her unusual and evocative creations. A photo impression is below.

On 21 September we had a wonderful Open Studio, starting with poems by Jane Flett (UK) and a view on equinox through an installation by Rasma Puspure (Latvia), followed by a dance performance by Manuela Tessi (Italy; dance), Nicolle Vieira (Brazil; dance) and Vintani Nafassi (music; Mozambique) and a sound scape with kinetic elements by Modris Svil­äns (Latvia). In between we visited the studios of Tim Gleason (USA), Ginta Grūbe (Latvia) and António Tavares (Portugal), who presented their recent works.

An obvious highlight of the Open Studio of 21 September was the improvisation dance performance in the patio, by Manuela Tessi (Italy) and Nicolle Vieira (Brazil), set to music by Vintani Nafassi (Mozambique). Dressed in black and white, the two dancers began with slow, solitary movements, as if searching for something. Gradually, their pace quickened and their solos merged into a dynamic duet. The slideshow gives an impression. A full video is available.

Mike Chattem (USA) came to OBRAS to fully immerse himself in his art work, uninterrupted and with no other obligations. Although he is a highly successful artist, he felt that he was ready to recalibrate his artistic vision. On the way to his residency, he visited the Prado in Madrid, where he got deeply inspired by the powerful application of colours by the renaissance painters. Mike experimented with a similar layering of colours and choose a new colour pallet. 
His images are meaningful without suggesting a message. He effortlessly switches between nightlife scenes and compassion for marginalised people, or between his lovely pets and terrifying demons.

Trish Ramsey (USA) is a visual artist with a speciality in textile design. She brought some recent works that Catherine Blumenkamp applied for her fashion designs (see elsewhere on this page). Trish is inspired by tradition and community engagement.
At OBRAS she was mainly working sculptural: she made small installations with marble shards that she partly covered with local red clay. She also made nets from T-shirts cut into strips and soaked them in plaster. And she was experimenting with pigments:  the ones that are used in Portugal to paint the base of walls, but also the local, deep red clay.

In 2023, 24 POSTCARDS: a mixed media performance was created by Stephan Pelton (dancer, choreographer), Brian Thorstenson (writer, actor) and Tim Gleason (visual artist) and a try out was presented. The slide show gives an impression.
Tim returned in August 2025 and brought the full video coverage including subtitles, and presented it for his fellow residents. It is now published on Vimeo.
In the performance, the actors contemplate on friendship as influenced by AIDS, Covid and distance. Part of the text is from a poem by Brian.

Marian Mudder (Holland) is an actress, writer, and therapist. In 2022, she published her first self-help book, titled “What I Wish I Had Known Earlier: About Fear, Self-Love, and Acceptance.” In this book, she summarized the wisdom, knowledge, and insights she gained during her long search for a remedy for her anxiety disorder. At OBRAS, Marian worked on her second self-help book, which focuses on relationship issues. She analyses the anatomy of emotional problems by linking psychology, neurology, and spirituality.

Giuseppe Di Salvatore (Italy, living in Switzerland) is a philosopher, currently working on a book on more-than-human perspectives. In his residency at OBRAS two years ago, Giuseppe was writing an essay on the Anthropocene. This time he reflected on vagueness, which brought him among other issues, at the environmental discussion on rewilding, the political seek for free spaces, the issue of the cultural bubbles and the geographical “nothingness”.
Giuseppe gave his artist talk the shape of a walk with five stops; on each of them he told a small anecdote and explained an element of vagueness. It was exciting because he combined fun and originality with philosophical considerations. Giuseppe led us via Goethe (Italian journey), Le Corbusier (The Bunker Bubble), el señor Guardado (who lived in Albacete, La Mancha, probably the emptiest and flattest place of Europe) to Mozart (Le Nozze di Figarro) and more.   
Although the pedometer stopped already at 600 steps, it was one of the most enriching walks we have ever done.

Ingrid Simons (Holland) had a 2,5-months residency. She painted, made performances and did ceramic work.
For many years already she is very consistent in the stile for her oil painting: very pasty, large brush strokes, few colours and largely abstract. But her inspiration has moved from landscapes, via the colours of the night, to wind. She added a new colour to her pattern: salmon. And for the first time she experimented with acryl on paper.
She also did performances, partly in collaboration with Beate Schnaitmann (cello) and Pedro Cabral (video recording).  She painted with Indian ink on a 5-meter-long strip of paper; one time in a flower field and one time at the shore of a marble quarry lake.
In her the ceramics work she made a 1x1m tableau depicting a night sky and painted on two 60cm high vases.

Ruth Baettig (Switzerland) is a performance artist. In 2023 she had a residency in which she performed in a marble quarry: a tiny creature in a giant space. This year she did the opposite (although dressed in the same tight red suit): she prominently occupied a micro-cosmos: a video projection inside a can showed her frolicking and struggling in high grass. A second video performance was recorded in the swimming pool and projected on the bottom of an ancient wash basin. Both installations were surrealistic, intriguing and exceptionally beautiful.

On 31 May we had an Open Studio with participations of Ingrid Simons, Beate Schnaithmann, Frans van Lent, Pluto Sotiropoulos, Guiseppe da Salvatore, Ruth Beattig, Elleke van Gorsel and Gerry van der Linden. The event started with a small concert by Mauro dilemma and Beate Schnaittman. After the concluding dinner, Elisa Mira and José Rodrigues were singing Cantes Alentejanos and much more. 

“I didn’t want to quote Jean-Luc. But Godard’s opposition of art and culture is at stake. Culture follows some rules, the caring rules of agriculture. Art can step out of line. Art is able not to care. What if we have the physical need to do it, to step out of line?”
 
As part of the Open Studio on 31 May, Giuseppe de Salvatore did a try out for an improvised performance: Tremens. It is part of a project in which Giuseppe is working on a book about vagueness. The video recording by Ruth Baettig has been an unplanned, spontaneous deed (https://the-artificial.org/).

Kimmo Ylönen (Finland) came to build an openly political and activist work of art. It is a multidisciplinary project that investigates the assumption that there truly is a mindset and a set of values that most Europeans share (the Treaty of Lisbon, (2009) suggests so, but may be wishful thinking). He was preparing his cycling tour home (4800 km!) that brings him along historical sites where countries decided or forced to divide the world into spheres of influence (e.g. Tordesillas (1491) and Verdun (1916)). The cycle tour will give him a glance of differences and similarities of identities of nations. His investigation will result in an exhibition.
A long-term side-project of Kimmo is to build a waterwheel on all sites where he has a residency. The idea is that people who see the wheel running are getting more aware of how precious water is. His waterwheel for the Ribeira São Braz got an extra dimension by the words that the poet Linda Buckmaster wrote on each of the paddles.

Modris Svilāns (Latvia) collected sounds from sheep bells, pneumatic hammers, the voices of fellow residents, stones scraping against each other, and more. With these raw materials, he composed a soundscape. He also created kinetic installations that he integrated into the piece. The final performance combined the soundscape and kinetic elements, with shadows on the wall adding a striking visual dimension. The result was a truly unique experience that left the audience in awe.

Anneke van der Eerden (Netherlands) came to fully dedicate herself to her art, while also reflecting on the next phase of her artistic career. During her stay, she experimented with watercolour – a medium she rarely uses.
Anneke drew inspiration from the play of shadows on her terrace, the calming presence of a centuries-old oak tree near her apartment, and the deep history of human presence in the region. And what truly amazed her was the spectacular tiles collection at the museum in Estremoz.

Azila Reisenberger (South Africa) returned for a residency at OBRAS Holland. She was working on a novel: a woman who lost her memory and chapter after chapter she finds pieces of knowledge and information back in the puzzle that is her life. Using the genre of a "detective" helps in following one step after the other, and it keeps the readers' suspense.
Although the book is witty easy read, it is a philosophical allegory: it guises a quest for identity and truth. The character who seemed to be difficult and "obnoxious" in the first few chapters, is like an onion - she sheds layer after layer, and in her core, the reader discovers a life of humanity, charity and goodness.
The residency allowed Azila to totally immerse in her project. She made big progress and left full of creative spirit.

After a tour to the marble quarries we took a coffee with a photo shoot in Vila Viçosa.

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Juliette Sallin (Switzerland) is dyeing on silk with natural pigments. Part of her residency was to add a new element to her art work: performance. She prepared a ceremony for her fellow residents, starting with a meditation to bring the focus on our relation with plants. A second part of the ceremony was an invitation to all, to dip plants into dying fluids and drip, splash or brush on wettened silk. After some twenty minutes the tissue had got its appearance due to the collective action.  
Currently, Juliette is working on a proposal for Evora European Capital of Culture: she intends to make an installation, performance and workshop as a follow up of her experience at OBRAS.  

Beate Schnaithman (Germany, living in Switzerland) came with an Ischias problem that seemed serious enough to have several days of complete bed rest. But after exposure to the Alentejo sun, a swim in the pool, a massage by Fatima and an environment with no stress, the pain largely disappeared. Beate found back the joy of playing and started many collaborations: with Mauro Dilemma (a small concert for cello and piano), Ingrid Simons (painting in the field, while listening to Beate playing), Pluto Sotiropoulos (accompanying his singing), Frans van Lent (acting in his video Doppler), Larry Feign (playing a Chinese, 18th century Flower Boat song) and Juliette Sallin (trials, resulting in future collaboration).
Beate gave a very interesting artist talk, concluding with playing several pieces. The first one was from the 17th century and deeply melancholic and the last one was from the 21th century hypnotising in its rhythmic power.
And Beate was so fortunate to have her birthday during her residency, resulting flower power and sweetness.  

Gerry van der Linde (Holland) was working on several new poems. But she also came to cope with the grief of the recent decease of her brother. She wrote two moving poems on her relation with him.
Gerry also created a series of small installations, exhibited them on the walls of her apartment and requested her fellow residents to write some words about them.  

Dan Ayers (UK, living in Berlin) was working a film script in six episodes on Molly houses: bars for quer people. In the 18th century London, there were more molly houses than there are gay bars nowadays. The story mixes two story lines: one in the 18th century and another in the present.
A gay Londoner escapes his own (hetero) wedding and stumbles through a secret passage from the 21th to the 18th century. He meets quer people in a Molly house and falls into a romantic affair. But his lover is taken by the authorities. Now he is involved in two fights in two very different Londons, but both are an attempt run away from conformity and to become his true self.
During his artist talk, Dan invited his fellow residents to play a role in his story. It was enlightening and fun in the same time. Dan also talked about his experience in the tough acquisition process for selling film script.

Sharon Bishop (UK) is deeply inspired by Rothko, especially by his paintings of three stacked color planes. She used that concept, but gave her personal touch: by adding tiny line drawings of buildings and by using local materials, either for painting (marble dust, red clay) or for printing (cork and wood). At her presentation she read her artist’s statement from a marble sheet.  

Alëna Korolëva (Russia, living in Canada) is a sound artist with a special interest in ecology. In 2022 she had a residency during which she recorded (among others) the sounds in an abandoned marble quarry.  In the past years she composed, published and exhibited soundscapes of these recordings. The latest one was released in March as a part of 14 Soundscapes compilation on Biodiversità Records . Alëna introduced this soundscape with the following text:
“The Borba region of Portugal, known for its rich marble deposits, is dotted with over 400 pit mines, all but 50 are abandoned. In 2018, a massive collapse in one of the largest quarries claimed five lives in a landslide. The history of mining is etched into the landscape, visible in the deep scars left by extraction. Over time, these wounds have been reclaimed by nature as non-human species adapt to the ruins, turning them into homes.
Four years after the landslide, I found myself at the bottom of this quarry as the sunset. Above me, pigeons circled the lower levels, filling the air with the continuous whistle of wings, while starlings gathered near the mouth of the pit, 50 meters above.
This colony of starlings had a few tunes they repeated again and again. The sounds reminded me of sirens and the beeping of excavation machinery from the nearby quarries. Masters of acoustic mimicry, the starlings took these simple melodies and created variations on the same notes, not just repeating but unfolding new songs, their regional dialect.”

James Bell made Catharsis: a 15-minute video exploring his experience of grief, whilst being in various landscapes. A 2.30 minutes extract is on YouTube. The music is from composer-singer Sophie Tassignon (see 2022 and 2024 for info on her residencies).
Recently, James has moved to Portugal. 

The fox that we spotted for the first time in September 2024 (during an Open Studio !), was visiting us in winter and spring nearly every day, saying hello to our cats.  Now, in the middle of summer, the fox does not show up any more, but rabbits do in his place.

Martine de Kok (Belgium) is a multimedia artist. During her residencies in 2022, 2023 and 2024 she was writing, drawing and composing songs, all for a children’s book (with a QR code to her songs) about TIME. It was just published (in Dutch): see this link. The book tells the great adventure of little bird Robin who doesn’t understand anything about TIME. She goes to ask advice from other birds in the forest, hoping to find something with which she can stop or slow down time.
Martine wrote the following teaser: “Robin has no time to work on her essay about ‘time’. In a few days she will be ten, and she has to prepare a party. To gain time, she asks the other birds in the forest for advice. Does time really fly forward, as the old, wise Eagle claims? Does Owl, the poet who has never finished a poem, know more? And why does carrier pigeon Dave go round in circles while he talks about time? It is the beginning of a breathtaking adventure, in which Robin gets lost in the dark coniferous forest, and a storm blows her into the lap of a gang of bizarre birds. Will Robin find what she is looking for?”