A poet and an artist Loulé

‘Love suffers long, and is kind, love doesn’t envy, love doesn’t brag, doesn’t behave inappropriately, is not easily made cross, doesn’t think evil but is happy with the truth. ‘

‘ You have heard hate your enemy love your neighbour BUT I, Jesus, say love your enemy, bless those that swear about you and do good to them.’

The first quote is a bit from Paul speaking in 1Corinthians 13: 4,5 and then a quote from Jesus saying difficult things in Matthew 5. That whole chapter is a challenging read for ‘self’.

We were in Loulé in a nice place to be and a nice place to eat.

In spite of Bess, our spaniel, they gave us a secluded table looking out on the street. Warm from the cold of the air we settled comfortably, Bess was brought water, fussed and then lay down to sleep.

Then on the wall opposite neatly painted was this person’s name:

Who was he? When did he live? What did he write? This person whose name was on the wall.

Here is a summary with the help of the Algarve History Association, Lynne Booker January 2013.

António Aleuxo lived from 1899 to 1949. His own family was poor as his father had been an alcoholic. He vowed never to drink and didn’t but he found it hard to provide for his 15 children.

Here is a little from some verses he wrote that reflect this:

‘I know I look like a thief

But there are many I know

Who without appearing to be

Are that which I seem.’

Then while working in France and sending money home to his family he wrote:

‘I was wounded to the heart

To think I live my life

In a house built

Of planks and cardboard.’

He printed his poems in small leaflets to sell and sometimes won poetry competitions. This is what he wrote about these times:

‘ King yesterday, today dethroned

Here I am again walking the streets

I gave the clothes back to their owner

And the misery goes on.

He suffered from tuberculosis and was operated on in Lisbon also spending time at the sanatorium in Coimbra. However, he died in the streets of Loulé on November 16, 1945. He was without food, medicine and of course money. This is what he wrote for his grave which he doesn’t have.

‘If, when I ask, I ask singing

People take more notice this way

Because if I ask weeping

Nobody takes pity on me.’

( This story made me sad particularly as when I was a very young child my father worked as a nurse, and we lived in the compound of an isolation hospital for patients with Tuberculosis and other duseases.)

Let us leave this story and pleasant place and go into the street where the jaccarandes grow. A long broad walk of calçado portuguesa mosaics. Look into the picture and see the detail of leaves and trunks dividing and bending with black and white square stones carefully placed at their roots.

But then there is an art gallery and another Portuguese person whose name I learn and work I see. It is engaging work. The painting invites one to see three different positions of the same face. Intriguing. I stand in three different places and see how nice it would be to see someone famous with three different moods hanging in the Portrait Gallery in London. I am just one of the public with no recommending authority at all but I still think the above!

The artist is Pedro Guimarăes Não Edtou Perdida. His works are in private collections in many countries and since 2016 it has been exhibited at the renowned Georges Bergès Gallery in Soho, New York.

The painting is on strips carefully angled to show three views of the same person.

Then there is a third person not a Portuguese but his subject is something I have been admiring for a while. The painting is of the stacks and cliffs of the Algarve. The stacks have splashes and reflection while also an idea of sand and rock through the water. The holes of the cliffs make you look more deeply into the painting, imagine and see. It is alive with brush strokes with intense orange showing warmth. A painting to look into and enjoy.

The artist is Voka, a nickname from childhood. His real name is Rudolf Vogl.

So from looking out from a café to a work by Conner Brothers I will end this post.

Take care,

Sandy 🙂