Went for a walk early (to miss the mid 30s) up behind us and down towards the water via another street – and there was Pedro, who painted our type of art: simple, local and colourful. And what a delightful person, who chatted and listened, a very engaging and interesting man (just like our Potuguese Camino friends) who liked to have a different challenge daily so we gave him one. The painting we liked was of ‘unadorned’ Portuguese houses painted in watercolours … we requested a few little additions which had him pausing for a ‘split challenging second’. Since he couldn’t apply more watercolour to a dry painting he painted our new bits with a paint called ‘gouache’ and it worked beautifully.
Besides figures chatting, flower pots and washing we also wanted tiles, all of which he did for us. While I skimmed over the tiles on previous posts, Barry Hatton talks in more detail, so I’ll just touch on them. A lot of these tiles are called ‘azulejos’ and besides looking magnificent they make buildings cool in summer and protect against damp in winter. He says, like the patterned pathways they are unique to Portugal. Their Arabic name means ‘small polished stone’ and the Moors brought them from North Africa.
There is a festival on tonight just down the hill on Rua Avenida to start tomorrow’s holiday for Santo Antonio, the patron saint of Lisboa. We’re going because the temperature is below 25 and we’re happy again.
