The tools for transforming the world...

Earlier this year I got lost in Lisbon's Jardim Zoologico metro station.
Wandering aimlessly (in a giant circle), I spotted some contemporary azulejos and was charmedby the artists graffiti-esque take on traditional portuguese tiles.


I later learnt that the artist, Julio Resende, was also behind this piece 'Black Ribeira' on the Ribeira in my old home town, Porto.



These tiny internet pictures don't do justice to the dreamy water colour like quality to the daily scenes depicted on this wall crawling along the river side. The white and blue tiles are the traditional colours used in Portuguese tiling and dazzle on many church, house and station walls in Porto.


Resende´s style is impressionistic. He often works in pen, watercolour and oil pastels, jotting observations, characters and scenes from his travels across the world.


'O carvão, a ponta do lápis, o aparo, a extremidade de uma cana, o pincel. Quantos mais, meu Deus! Os meios para a transformação do mundo'

'Carbon, the point of a pencil, a clip, the tip of a cane, a paintbrush. And more, my goodness, there are so many ways to transform the world!'

...Honestly its almost impossible to find good examples of Julio Resende's work online, it has to be seen in books, or his museum in Porto!



Inspirational.