“Abrantes’ Sketchbook”

[Eduardo Salavisa in Abrantes, Portugal] Last year I was invited to an artistic residence in Abrantes, a small town in Portugal. For 11 days I was able to freely roam with the only objective of drawing the town. Along with the residence I was invited to do an exhibition (you can see here the post of the exhibition and of some drawings of the city).

This year they edited a book, a facsimile of my sketchbook, with the 60 drawings I’ve made, called “Caderno de Abrantes” (Abrantes’ Sketchbook). On the first paragraph of the small text that I wrote for the introduction one can read: “When I was invited to draw this city, Abrantes, a city where I have never been for more than a couple of hours, I thought: “Do they know my drawings? Do they know the type of drawing I do? Do they know that my sketches are not really realistic?…” They did and I had total freedom.”

Next year I’m hoping that they will do the same with this year guest sketcher Javier de Blas who made some marvellous drawings.