Sketching report from Algarve Portugal

[By Marc Taro Holmes in Algarve, Portugal]

Hey everyone! We’re recently back from a USK workshop in Algarve. I wanted to share some of the urban sketches from the 11 day painting tour!

I liked this alley because of the boats parked in back. That seemed like a slice of life we don’t see at home.

This spot is kitty-corner from the city hall in Portimao. I thought this fallen roof was more interesting than the official looking edifice. That, and I wanted to capture the irony of this run down block covered in old political campaign posters.

Painting these two sketches made me think back to the town of Paraty Brazil. We’d seen the Portuguese marble mosaic sidewalks show up in Macau, and now made the connection with the colorful plaster houses in Brazil. Real evidence the Portuguese once sailed the whole world.

When it came to the city hall itself, I still avoided the issue – finding the parking entrance more interesting than the building itself. Ran out of time too after a false start, so that ended up being a 15 min single line sketch to wind up that day.

Just an ordinary block of buildings in Portimau. This kind of typical shop feels a bit like Italy, but with the little white balustrade along the roofline, it has it’s own Portugese style. These were up behind a freeway on-ramp, and I liked the natural ground line it made by leaving that ugly-but-practical modernization out.

This square in Lagos features the Igreja de Santa Maria. This is supposed to be the site of an old slave market. I originally intended to make something grim and moody to convey a sense of the history here – but when we arrived, the place has been so completely changed – all white and sparkling in the sun – it’s hard to imagine that dark side history ever happened.

The Mercado Municipal in Lagos. This was one just for fun at the very end of the day. Immediately to our left is a taxi stand, which was our ticket home. If you go the other way, reverse to where we’re looking, you’ll get out to the Ponta da Piedade in about 30 minutes of scenic walking, or of course a short drive.

Inside the medieval castle at Silvas. Coincidentally while we were there USK Algarve was having an exhibition in the art gallery on site. Great motivation for our class of sketchers!

This final page starts at Fóia – the highest point of the Algarve, just above Monchique, then back down to Silves, where we got off the bus at this old bridge – then raced up to the cathedral to sketch it before we had to be back on the bus. Not the best way to be a sketch tourist – but this is the reality of travel – sometimes you have to draw fast, or not a all.

I didn’t expect this, but Fóia is of course capped with radio antennas, cell towers and this space station looking dome that might be radar? I don’t know.  It was so cloudy when we arrived, we only stayed a few minutes – this was the only thing to see from here. So that’s the oddest sketch – but it’s neat to be surprised sometimes.

A big Hello! and Thanks! to all sketchers we met in Portugal 🙂

~marc