Monday Murals - Blue and White

These electrical boxes were photographed in Cascais during my visit to Portugal in May.
Painted by ADD FUEL aka Diogo Machado, a Portuguese artist who specializes in painting the traditional blue and white tiles in his murals.

I had previously written a post about a beautiful mural he painted in April this  year, at Curtin University, Perth, during Form 2016.

For more beautiful murals from around the world please click on this link.

Monday Murals - 40 years of the Carnation Revolution

Just around the corner from the Alcantara-Mar train station, at Rua de Cascais there are a series of murals which were painted in 2014 to commemorate the 40 years of the 25th of April Carnation revolution in 1974.

The initiative was called 40 years - 40 murals, but apparently some of the murals have been painted over already - maybe too risque? 

Not all 40 murals were painted on this long wall though.

The murals were mainly painted by artists belonging to the APAURB (Portuguese Association of Urban Art) and volunteers, without institutional collaboration.

They are the same crowd that painted the Alcantara-Mar underground pass.

For other murals from around the world click on this link.

Liberty, bread, peace, earth, democracy,..., housing, culture, health.

The door says - 40 years 1974-2014, 40 murals 25 April

40 years of Independence (of former Portuguese colonies)

The Portuguese artist VIHLS mural that was originally there, (below) was at that time painted with a body and closed fist hand, that was later removed.

This was Vhils first sculpted mural in Lisbon on Rua de Cascais. It’s the face of his friend, the American artist Brad Downey.

(photo from the net - closed fisted man painted on the Vihls mural, now painted over)

(photo from the net - when the murals were originally being painted)

Aug 2017 - PS: apparently this building has been torn down in the Summer of 2016, so all these murals have disappeared. So I'm glad I got to photograph them.

Family, Friends and Food

To end my posts about my visit to Portugal I've made some collages of the wonderful moments that filled my short 18 day visit.

The main point of my visit was to attend the Christening of my grand-nephew or great-nephew (apparently there are different names used in England or the US). He was born in San Francisco, but was in Portugal with his Mom and Dad to be baptized surrounded by his family.

The baptism was held at the St Michael Catholic Church in Sintra, followed by a lovely reception lunch at a beautiful estate nearby - Vila Eugenia - with views to the Sintra mountain. It was for sale too, so if you have a few spare millions and would like to wake up with those views, this is for you!

Vila Eugenia -  beautiful gardens, views and interiors

Left to right - Some of the beautiful girls attending the Christening, a shoe made by my niece as a Christening gift to guests, the tables with food, the Christening cake and our family - from left to right, my daughter, me, my son in law, my niece's husband, my eldest niece (mother of baby), my younger niece, my sister and brother in law.

I also managed to get together with some friends at my former place of residence near Coimbra and we had a wonderful lunch organized by one of my friends.

Family dinners were also almost a daily occurrence when in Lisbon, when we would all sit around the table for hours chatting away.

Top right to left - 1 & 2 - lunch w/friends 3- family around the table.

Bottom right to left - 1- more friends at same lunch, 2- my daughter and I with my husband's brother,3- family around the table again.

And of course there's always the wonderful Portuguese food, cheap and tasty. Oh how I miss such wonderful food...

Some of the traditional Portuguese food that I ate

And then we all left the day after the Christening - a niece to Angola, my daughter and son in law to Amsterdam,  me back to Perth and my eldest niece, husband and baby, back to San Francisco...

My poor sister and brother in law had to do 4 trips to the Lisbon airport, as we all left at varying times from early morning to late evening.

Half-way through the trip, while sitting in the plane waiting to take-off to Perth, at Dubai Airport I spotted this plane that was being pushed past our plane. Isn't it pretty?

African animals painted on an Emirates plane in Dubai

It's time to start thinking about the next holidays...

Monday Mural - The beach

While taking a different route to come home after meeting up with bloggers Wendy and Grace, I spotted 3 different murals, on the very long Scarborough Beach Road.

The first one, in the car park between a chemist and the Scarborough Police station at 82 Scarborough Beach Road, was painted in February 2015 by Western Australian artist George Domahidy (Graphite Crew), and has images of beach girls from the present bikini clad to the past wearing those dress like swimming costumes, not forgetting the life-saver and local landmarks of the olden days.  

For other murals from around the world please click on this link:

For other murals by George Domahidy click here for my post from December 2014. 

I found a "youtube" video with the artist painting this mural. Enjoy it!

Meet up with other bloggers

A few weeks ago Wendy Barrett who blogs about her paintings and writing sent me an email saying she would love to meet me. We were recent followers of each other's blogs. 

Apart from being a very talented painter, Wendy has also written a book and publishes travel articles on the West Australian newspaper.

With Wendy's agreement I also invited Grace who blogs about Perth and it's many charms, and who I had previously met on a couple of occasions. 

Exactly two weeks ago, on Wednesday 27th July, the three of us met up for coffee at the Dome Cafe at the Scarborough beach hotel, right across the Scarborough beach.

We spent a lovely couple of hours chatting away about our lives, kids, blogs...

Hopefully there will be other get-together's in the future, who knows with a few more Perth bloggers joining in.

The Dome Cafe (the brown house) by the entrance to the Scarborough Beach Hotel

Beach on the right and hotel on the far end

Street view of ocean front street (with construction going on on beach side)

Wendy and I - Grace was the photographer, as she doesn't like to appear in photos

  
Please check their Wendy's and Grace's blogs:

http://wendybarrettpainting.blogspot.com.au
http://perthdailyphoto.blogspot.com.au

Monday Mural - Alcantara train station, Lisbon

I found these murals at the pedestrian tunnel leading to the "Alcantara-Mar" train Station, on the Lisbon to Cascais line.

This  is also the best station to access the Santo Amaro docks, where you can find lots of cosmopolitan bars, restaurants and night clubs by the riverside, just under the 25th April bridge.

Over 40 murals were painted by several artists belonging to the Portuguese Association of Urban Art (Apaurb) with the help of 400 volunteers.
They illustrate city views of Lisbon as well as some of the most iconic monuments of the city.

Unfortunately there is also a lot of graffiti, which saddens me because I can't understand why someone would want too deface a mural that beautifies a place.

If you enjoy looking at murals from around the world please click on this link

The Alcantara-Mar station and a train

Lisbon scenery

The 25th of April bridge across the River Tagus (see link 1 below)

A replica of Santa Luzia lookout (see link 1 below)

Campo Pequeno Bullring (which I hope is no longer used for bullfights)

The famous 28 vintage yellow tram that crosses many of Lisbon's tourist spots 

  Fountain at the Sao Pedro de Alcantara Lookout and below the view over Lisbon and tile      panel of the same lookout.  (see link 2 below)

Belem Tower on the left and Discoveries Monument on the right

The historic 18th century "Aguas Livres" Aqueduct in Lisbon

In some of the building's pillars are other murals which are unrelated to the Lisbon cityscape.

Revolution stamps

1 -   http://sami-colourfulworld.blogspot.com.au/2016/08/portugal-lisbon-v-best-lookouts.html

2 -   http://sami-colourfulworld.blogspot.com.au/2016/07/portugal-lisbon-iii_10.html

Lisbon Collage

Here are photo collages of interesting tile signs, old tiles, traditional cobblestone pavements, interesting doors and windows and architecture, compiled from photos taken during my holiday to Lisbon in May this year.

Street name signs with tiles can be seen in some of the older areas of Lisbon and in Sintra

Tiles, tiles and more tiles, some of them centuries old.

Cobblestone pavements -  a real labour of love, time consuming and not many craftsmen doing it!

Modern and Art Deco - how do you like the arm holding the corner of this building?

My new passion - doors and windows! There are so many beautiful ones...
I've even started "collecting" them on my Pinterest account, there are hundreds from all over the world.

And to end the post a single photo of a cute sculpture I found during one of my walks around Lisbon. 

Enjoy your weekend.