Monday is usually my day off.

I am still getting the luck. Plenty of work in the waiting. However, I am still on a strict budget.

A cheap snack in Lisbon means going to Minipreço Express in Sau Paulo for 3 hot, spicey sausages for €1.47, a dark bread bun for 25 Cents, and this pudding for just €5.49. It is on offer. It is only 17% Vol - I will be OK, and ready for work tomorrow.

Double espresso in a large paper cup filled to the brim with unbranded Bailey's. It is a fucking good pudding :)

Anyone for a Tuk-Tuk?

As essentially Lisbon as trams, quiosques and ornate wobbly paving you can't walk on. The Tuk-Tuks. Opinion seems to be divided. I love them. Most are electric - non-polluting (this is an original 2 stroke), they provide employment, and, most importantly of all, they are great fun. My top tip is to take a ride and tell the driver to just show you their own Lisbon. Forget the tourist stuff.

She's a little bit cute as fuck isn't she?

Thee Oh Sees.

Thank you to whoever turned me on to this very healthy shit. It is about time rock woke again. Brilliant.

Good work :)

 

It is seriously about time rock and roll forgot about the money.

Love it, you Thee Oh Sees people.

Thank you so much.

 

And some art for the LOLS.

Another Praça do Camoes. I am getting good at this one. Practice makes perfect.

 

Some people think this is not work!

 

A laundromat self-portrait.

I am using US English, because, well, hey - American people, I know you are believers in democracy really.

I am now diving into deep history. Once upon a time I studied 'A' Level Photography and Media studies at Shrewsbury College of Art and Technology (SCAT for the laugh). I loved the photography bit. When I was supposed to be sitting my Maths exam I spent the afternoon on top of the Wrekin looking over the plains of Shropshire. It was a college for people who were not clever enough to go straight to university.

One of the first 'assignments' in photography class was a representational self-portrait. Piss easy - just empty my pockets and take a snap.

30+ years later, things haven't really changed that much. Here is my life from my pockets today. Seriously; fuck all has changed in 30+ years!

Pens. Tobacco. Ventolin. Condoms.

Rainy Days.

What to do on rainy days? They can be a good excuse for a day off if you have money in pocket. Trundle around all those galleries I've been wanting to visit. That would be nice. But, I need cash - setting up a new home takes money.

There was a time I would sit in cafes sketching from postcards, or even sketching from memory. Today, Google offers much more. So, I am sitting in a cafe searching Google Images for decent, high resolution images of Lisbon, or transferring pics from my phone to laptop and creating small, A4 sketches for sale another day.

When it is not raining I still much prefer to work BIG in the street. If I won the lottery tomorrow (I don't play the lottery, but...) I am pretty sure you would still find me sketching in the street on 3 Meter x 1 Meter, brown craft paper. When all is good, it is just a very pleasant way to pass time. Bottle of beer, sunshine, people, beautiful architecture to draw. It isn't always good, but most of the time I just love to do it. I have always been 'in it for the money' out of pure necessity, but most importantly, I am 'in it for the fun'.

Praça do Camoes, Lisbon. First large street sketch of the year...

Another New Year!

If we could stop them, non of us would get any older! Not for me to be such a kill joy, but I am beginning to think we have all been duped into celebrating something we shouldn't really be celebrating.

Anyway, life in Lisbon is a little quiet socially. Say 'hello' to my new girlfriend...

She is beautiful and BIG. If she ever stands up, she will tower over me by 2 Meters :)

A very obedient model. There are many of them in Lisbon. I love this sort of stuff also...

 

Beautiful work.

I am enjoying life here. However, something feels 'empty' and I am not quite sure what that 'empty' is? Perhaps it is just the lack of social life. Dunno.

Here's another photo from the smartphone archive.

I'm going to take a holiday. Happy New Year.

More great Youtube finds.

In 1969 London was cool. Not sure why I found this. A chat on a webforum about 'your first recollection of synthesised music' sort of got me here.

Brilliant stuff!

 

Okey Dokey. Let's dance a New Year in.

Murals - Praça do Carmo.

 

2 Meters x 1 Meter (approx).

Three more to come.

 

Murals.

Lisbon is being very kind to me work wise. First Two of Six Guest House/Hotel murals.

 

 

Good to be busy. Missing the streets!

 

BingBong!

I hope Super Furry Animals don't mind me doing this :D

I'm sure they wouldn't. I am on a total SFA's vibe presently. The accent sort of reminds me of what was once home. Well, close enough.

 

Fun for fun.

Fame again!

Nah - not really :)

I'm quite happy about not being famous, or infamous. However, articles like this https://elsaltodiario.com/zero-grados/la-vida-errante-es-un-arte are very valuable, and greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Busy, busy, busy in Lisbon. No rest for the wicked this Christmas holiday. I am very happy about this also.

What is your best YouTube find?

That's all really. Have flu like symptoms, so just listening to music on my new headphones.

 

Something very special about this live recording.

 

A luxurious interlude.

Look at this...

https://www.myrenova.com/news/26/the-sexiest-wc-on-earth-lisbon

€1 a go. Lisbon is crazy. I tried it after reluctantly paying, but felt very thankful afterwards. Not sure why we all expect our waste to be dealt with for free in towns and cities. Couldn't quite bring myself to soil the pretty coloured bog roll - I stuck with conventional white.

Don't knock it until you've tried it!

In to the fold...

Project Nazare is almost ready to go.

For the first time in many, many years, I am going to have something more, or less like a non-nomadic life. That is the plan. To become a part of a community in a small Atlantic fishing village is going to take a fair bit of adjusting, and skill learning - another new language to try and get my head around. Only took me 10 years to learn Spanish. This is quite a big change, and a challenge I am taking on. Nothing totally new to me (other than the language), but it has been a very long time. I am ready!

Fortunately, I have already met many like minded people here. There is a healthy artists collective amongst many other 'alternative' type things. Even met someone from Freekuency Festival today, which reminded me of another idea I would like to try next summer, so it may well happen there. I have only heard nice things about this free/donation based festival.

What is Project Nazare going to be? It is just going to be me painting, fishing, cooking and drinking beer on the beach. I can't afford beer, so I am going to ask people to send me beer. Seriously. Why would anyone want to send me beer? Out of the goodness of their kind hearts mostly, but there could be another reason.

Just need to buy another HUGE canvass. Replace all my paints, oils, brushes, chemicals and other artist's paraphernalia and I am ready to go. That is going to cost around €500. Almost there. Perhaps another Three weeks, or so. Unless my beer sending plan proves to be more popular than I am expecting.

Oh, and I still need a half decent camera.

Winter?

Apparently so. I have bought a winter coat just in case, but it doesn't seem to have happened yet.

 

Another shitty webcam photo. There always seems to be something more important than another new camera to have stolen. Minor medical treatment from a professional is required. So, I have bought a tube of Vaseline, a scalpel and some Elastoplast. New camera tomorrow perhaps.

I am busy thankfully. The Lisbon/Nazare plan looks like it is going to work. Slight adjustment means Lisbon Monday to Wednesday, and the rest of the time painting on the beach hopefully. I shall still need a bit of help, so I have an idea. More tomorrow...

Stories from the city, stories from the sea.

Stories from the city, stories from the sea is the title of a PJ Harvey album. It was One of just Three albums I took with me when I initially started this series of adventures and misadventures. It is still a long time favourite with a new relevance to my life today as I somehow manage to spend time in Lisbon and Nazare. My intention is to spend more time in Nazare by the sea, and a little less time in Lisbon even though I enjoy the city much.

 

My back has recovered fully now. My foot is almost there. Just a minor skin thing to deal with. It all costs money :( People warned me about this - I knew they were right, but hey; live young whilst you can. I have been incredibly lucky health wise so far. Long may it continue.

I am looking for sponsors (again). A proposal will be here for all to read next week. I think I have something very special to sell, and I am not looking for much.

Is anyone really going to pay me to paint, cook, fish and drink beer on a beach all winter?

Mundo Fantastico da Sardinha.

Not my photograph.

 

See more here.

You might be thinking this is tourist tat taken too far. Personally, I would forgive you for thinking that way. Right on the central praça in the heart of photo land - it is a tourist trap. But, look again.

At the supermarket just around the corner you can buy a tin of sardines in spicy tomato sauce for just €0.52, but somehow you know you are going to get better value at 4x the price from Mundo Fantastico da Sardinha. It is fucking brilliant. Only a mad man, or pure genius could have come up with this. A very expensive shop amongst all the designer names in the heart of Lisbon selling tinned fish only. Not even tinned fish, but ONLY tins of sardines. Brilliant. Like something straight out of a Roald Dahl story come to life.

I am finally beginning to get into the heart of secret Portugal. More another day. Three rainy days. Police intervention (my first police problem in Portugal) has hammered my non-existent savings. Another rainy night :(

A Typical Day. V2

There are NO typical days.

Saturday morning I returned to Praça do Rossio. I did exactly the same as I did on Friday. Same place, same time. Everything the same except using a large canvas instead of paper. Saturday, in the middle of the main square of a European capital. You would expect this to be good, but no. Not a single moment of interest from anyone. Same on Sunday. Think I made about €20 all weekend. That sort of equates to less than 10 Cents/hour.

There are reasons for this. However, often there is no logical explanation whatsoever. I will talk about the reasons I know affect my work another day. Sometimes you just have to roll with it, and hang on to the belief - it worked Friday, it has worked many days before.

Tough going presently. My back is in agony. My legs freeze-up with paralysing cramp if I stand without moving for a few minutes. My foot is still swollen and sore, but almost there. My skin needs another check-up. All this in a relatively unfamiliar city outside of a medical system I am not in yet.

Despite this (and, despite many other things), I am winning. Work for tomorrow means I will have saved enough cash to return to Nazare and search for studio space. Also, want to see what the weekend scene is like there now surf season is starting. And, see a doctor.

Thank f*** it is my back and feet, and not my hands. I can still plonk myself on the ground and sketch in reasonable comfort. But, that was a seriously hard few weeks. I am getting older :(

A typical day.

There isn't actually a typical day - if there is any pattern it is that things are always very irregular and unpredictable. You can try and find a routine in a city you know, but sure enough, in time, the routine will be thrown into chaos.

Today I went to my 'usual' working pitch only to see an entertainments stage built in front of the buildings I was sketching. So, of I went to find a new place to work. At around 8.30AM I set-up in Praça do Rossio. An architectural dream to sketch. Complicated, but very enjoyable. The praça is surrounded by traffic, and full of tourists. It can be a little tiring. By 12PM I had finished my sketch, sold it for €50, collected about €8 in drops. Lunchtime.

I have found a nice traditional place that does a simple, tasty good lunch with bread and a small beer for under €10. Today I had what I think was partridge and rabbit in a gravy drenched rice. Heavily loaded with white wine vinegar. It was very nice.

Afternoon spent internetting, drinking and planning stuff that needs to be planned. That was after a short siesta and a trip to the very, very good art shop to buy canvas and pens for work tomorrow. I will return to the same spot I worked this morning, but work more slowly with more detailing and more attention to light on a 210CM x 100CM canvas, and try to sell it for €100.

This evening I will put a painting on display in a busy spot. Collecting drops, drinking and chatting with locals and tourists - making connections, getting to know local people especially. I plan to work this city each weekend for 6 months at least. It is a dream city for artists for all sorts of reasons. This is effectively my social life as much as my work. When you are down, out of cash and in need, it can feel like begging. Working alongside the street dealers and hustlers. It certainly isn't glamorous. When you are up, it is fantastic fun. You meet so many people from all sorts of backgrounds. That will be my Friday night out.

Then, finish with a drink to chill at my regular haunt. Smoke a little, and find a bed.

Saturday morning tea and breakfast at my usual early hours cafe, then back to Praça do Rossio to start all over again.

It is a life that suits me. I enjoy it even when I have a very sore back and foot. It isn't for everyone, and it is most definitely work, but very rewarding work.

That is about as typical as it gets.