THE PROJECT
"A city was written in the sea."
Carlos Drummond de Andrade
The "Illustrated Copacabana" project began in 2004, when I moved to this famous neighborhood and affectionately called "The little princess of the sea" where I was able to find rich material for my paintings. It was Carnival month and the streets were full of various "types" interesting to the attentive eye of a visual artist. I started photographing almost every day and at different times using a 400 mm lens, which allowed me to record people's spontaneous moments from a distance. With that, I started a collection of more than two thousand photographs. At first, I knew I had very important and rich material in my hands and just a few steps from my house, but I still didn't know how to work with it.
One day I took my sketchbook out to the street to draw some regular residents and tourists live. They were all portrayed in a few strokes in an attempt to capture spontaneity. I noticed the quantity and diversity of these people's daily customs, every detail, every way they behave, dress, interact with the neighborhood and the beach. I then decided it was time to start painting them in the studio. I started a new phase with linework and painting in the "stylized realistic" style, making a fusion of photographs and live sketches.
As I have always had a strong influence from the greats illustrators Norman Rockwell and J.C.Leyendecker who portrayed American life in the 20th century. This was the trigger for part of the inspiration for this project.
Another point of great inspiration was in the works of the artist Jean Baptiste-Debret, who in the 19th century did what I try to do today with my paintings in Copacabana, portraying people, their lives and their customs in an objective and iconographic.
