Wednesday, March 18, 2009

The Wash house street... step by step / A Rua do Lavadouro... passo a passo


Although nowadays the washing machines are already a presence in most homes, these are still public wash houses to in many places, and not necessarily in the most rural or remote: I know some well within large cities such as Porto, and many more in its surroundings...
Apesar de hoje em dia as máquinas de lavar já serem presença habitual na maioria das casas, ainda se encontram destes lavadouros públicos a funcionar em muitos lugares, e não necessariamente nas zonas mais rurais ou afastadas: Conheço alguns bem no interior de grandes cidades como o Porto, e muitos mais nos seus arredores...
Fabriano cold-pressed 7"x 5" - 140lb (18x12,5cm - 300g/m2) paper
Available in my Etsy shop / Disponível na minha loja Etsy

Since I described here recently my working methods from the first sketches to the moment when the drawing is ready to receive the first colors, I thought it would be interesting to give a sequence to that description, showing how the painting is done until the final result. However, I have some difficulty in describing what happens by writing, because everything is done in a somewhat intuitive manner, so I chose to put out the images of the work progression in the way it looked at the end of each session, which are perhaps more enlightening than anything I could write.
Uma vez que descrevi aqui recentemente a minha forma de trabalhar desde os primeiros esboços até ao momento em que o desenho está pronto a receber as primeiras cores, achei que seria interessante dar sequência a essa descrição mostrando como se processa a parte da pintura até ao resultado final. Tenho, no entanto, alguma dificuldade em descrever por escrito aquilo que acontece, uma vez que tudo se processa de forma algo intuitiva, pelo que optei por colocar aqui as imagens da progressão do trabalho, da forma como ele se apresentava no final de cada sessão, as quais serão porventura mais esclarecedoras do que qualquer coisa que pudesse escrever.






...and then the last image: The finished work in the top.
...e por fim a última imagem: O trabalho acabado em cima.

8 comments:

Julio Rodrigues said...

Que bela lição e que bela pintura!
Paulo Mendes, sem dúvida, o nosso Norman Rockwell. Parabéns.

Paulo J. Mendes said...

Nem por sombras, amigo Villager, nem por sombras...
O grande N.R., tantas vezes incompreendido mas que pessoalmente muito admiro, era exímio na pintura a óleo, ainda mais exímio na figura humana, no tratamento das luzes e sombras, etc, etc, coisas que não domino de todo. Os seus trabalhos eram antecedidos de vários estudos rigorosos, não raramente recorrendo a modelos ao vivo, enquanto por estes lados é tudo um pouco conforme sai... Sem falar de que o trabalho final era de enormes dimensões em comparação com estes "cromos".
Mesmo estudando e trabalhando bastante, precisaria sempre de subir a um escadote para chegar aos calcanhares de tão grande mestre :-)

Every Photo Tells A Story said...

Another wonderful painting, Paulo! Thank you for showing the progression; I find it fascinating to see all the stages, and the steps it takes to complete the painting. Now that I see how much detail it involves, I don't know how you get so much accomplished. Especially with your cat on your lap:)

P.S. It's great that you are posting in both English and (I'm assuming) Portugese.

Paulo J. Mendes said...

Thank you, Nancy, for your words. I've always been fascinated by step-by-step images of progressing works by other artists, so decided to share mine, as we can learn so much from each other. I am thinking to repeat this experience and post more sequences like this from time to time.
I must confess that, despite their countless attempts, my cats can't succeed to jump into my lap while I'm painting, but I got used to have one of them at my shoulder during that time. Fortunately the lightest one :))

Unknown said...

Wow Paulo....
I love everything (again) in this little jewel of a painting. You even were able to hang earrings on this lady!

Thank you for posting your in progress work. This helps me so much. hugs!

Paulo J. Mendes said...

Thank you, Sheila. I couldn't forget the earrings that are so typical of these characters :-)
Speak to you soon!

Stephen Dell'Aria said...

fantastic painting and an interesting look at how you make your art. I am intrigued with your spatial creations, the direction and avenues you use to break the picture into long perspective recessions.

Paulo J. Mendes said...

The landscapes in northern Portugal are almost always dense, compact and somewhat ramdomly organised, allowing a wide sort of perspectives and directions that makes them so interesting. Although I don't have that experience, I'm sure that they are a plein air sketcher's dream.