100 * 100cm

One of my paintings per week will be placed on this blog. Hope you liked this one.

Plastic Bank Cards

The other ubiquitous item in all our lives is the plastic bank card. It is as part of our existence as much as the internet and brushing your teeth, that is as long as you live in a modern country. It is as part of our lives as much as the digital circuit boards. So, if you have a look at one of my more recent paintings, you will find that there are digital boards, and in many cases "plastic" money as well. This transforms that painting into a time stamp. At some time in the future, you will look at the antiquated circuit boards, with their huge chips and think that in those days they were so backward and clunky. And as for the bank cards, well, today we use subcutaneous chips in our wrists. I believe that in some clubs in London, this is the way that your drinks and entrance fees are charges. Maybe the future is here already.

Assemblage

This is one of the many 100*100cm paintings done for the exhibition held at the Banco Portugal this year. It was a great success and the staff were exceptionally helpful. I recommend this gallery to anyone. It is no longer a bank, but it used to be one of the central banks of Portugal. Now it has been converted into a gallery, with the sponsorship of the local municipality. It still has the original heavy wooden de core and the old vault in the basement. The only things in the basement safe is some old furniture, it is just a convenient storage space. Having worked in an old bank before, it was very interesting to be given the tour.

The Silver Girraff

This painting was done to accompany the other painting of the giraffes. However this one was done with silver leaf instead of gold leaf. Both these painting were started some time ago, when the drawing was done with graphite on water colour paper. The drawing were supposed to be amusing, and once they were finished they lay around and I did not know what to do with them. Eventually the "Aha Moment" arrived when I was preparing for the exhibition at the Gallery Banco Portugal. Adding paper to the oil painting is commonly called "Collage", but in this case 3 dimensional circuit boards were also added. So, now is painting an example of "Collage" or "Assemblage"?