Ermida de S. Bento

 

Castelo de Monsaraz

Praia do mercador

Primeiro do ano.

Sketching along the pista #10

As late afternoon sun floods Monsaraz, its steep hilltop position creates deep and sometimes unexpected shadows punctuated by brilliant bursts of orange light. Part of Portugal’s charm for the urban sketcher is that there is such a range of buildings, from the palatial and pristine to the rustic and ruinous. Here, location and building combined seamlessly. I chose a building at the more derelict end of the scale, fronting the castelo, where the light and topography combined to capture the mood of the town as a whole.

I placed my sketching focus on the old doorway, and only hinted at the main streetscape with its church spires dominant in the middle distance. A restricted palette of orange, red, blue, and grey reinforced the dramatic light.

Sketching along the pista #9

I often incorporate small elements of collage into my urban sketching. But I had never made an urban sketch almost entirely of collage. Until Monsaraz, that is. The view from the hotel window looked west across the Alentejo plains, picturesquely divided into small farms, with ranges of hills in the hazy distance. I had come prepared for this moment, with a small portfolio of old coloured paper scraps to which I added some ephemera from this extraordinary hilltop town.

To cut or to tear? That is the question. I mostly chose to tear as better suiting the casual landscape patterning. Some 1860s government blue paper formed hazy sky, touched with a dry stroke of Prussian blue watercolour. A cover leaf from the mid-nineteenth century Archivo Universal: revista hebdomadaria provided distant hills. The cream frontispiece of an old book and ochre paper added just the right colour for the paddocks, while fragments of marbelled book endpapers, brown wrapping paper, and some contemporary ephemera touched on the details.

Sketching along the pista #8

I cycled to the hilltop of Monsaraz (OK, in 1st gear with a few stops) so it was great to refresh at the top. Monsaraz in autumn is best between 4 30 in the afternoon (when most tourists drive home to the east) and sunset, when fabulous views to the west over the Alentejo countryside make you glad that Portuguese rule was restored in 1640! (Hello Spain, just joking.)

The restaurants along the main street of Monsaraz have great views east, but after dark the interiors also make great urban sketching subjects. Most Portuguese restaurants have a trove of decorative objects and here wild boar and deer heads, a boar plate by a local artist, and the ever-present TV screens were softened by neatly laid tables and timber panelling. Restaurant sketches are always interrupted by the arrival of food, so I completed the sketch later with a typical paper doily collaged in the bottom right hand corner to balance the composition.

Estive num cabeço chamado Monsaraz

Subi ao cabeço, fiz quatro desenhos, e desci...

68º Encontro ESk Monsaraz

68º Encontro ÉSk | Monsaraz

Desenhos de Luís Ançã

68º Encontro ÉSk | Monsaraz

Desenhos de Susana Coelho

68º Encontro ÉSk | Monsaraz

E pronto aqui ficam os meus bonecos

68º Encontro ÉSk | Monsaraz

Desenhos de António Coutinho

68º Encontro ÉSk | Monsaraz

 Desenhos de Cristina Rebocho

68º Encontro ÉSk | Monsaraz

Desenhos de Paula Costa

68º Encontro ÉSk | Monsaraz

Desenhos de Cristina Seixas

68º Encontro ÉSk | Monsaraz

Monsaraz já andava a pedi-las há uns tempos e, desta vez não nos escapou. É certo que de vez em quando damos lá um salto com os amigos, mas para desenhar assim, à séria, num encontro, esta foi a primeira vez.

É de esperar, no inverno, por aqui, algum vento e tempo assim fresquito, mas não esteve. Antes pelo contrário, esteve um belo dia de primavera, mesmo a condizer com os desenhos que saíram nesta fornada, luminosos e cheios de cor.

Apareceu gente nova e fez muito bem em aparecer, a nós, sabe-nos muito bem fazer novos amigos e partilhar experiências e, ainda por cima, eu acho que eles gostaram de estar connosco também :)

E o encontro foi isto, agora deixo-vos com as imagens deste belíssimo dia de desenhos.

Foto: António Coutinho

Foto: Cristina Rebocho

Foto: Cristina Rebocho

Foto: Cristina Rebocho

Foto: Cristina Rebocho

Foto: Cristina Rebocho

Foto: Cristina Rebocho

Foto: João Matos