Carries a stool? A sketcher, surely!

I was walking up a very steep hill this morning in Torres Vedras, on my way to a sketching meetup when a car stops next to me and the driver asks me if I was going to the meetup and if I wanted a ride.

We didn’t know each other, but she saw me walking uphill with my foldable stool on my shoulder, which is a big tell. Of course, some urban sketchers enjoy drawing standing up, sometimes leaning on a wall, but most of us carry a foldable stool or a foldable chair so we can draw more comfortably.

And really, how common is it for non sketchers to walk on the street with a foldable stool on their shoulder?

Posted as part of Six word Saturdays

Playing with light. Fingers still blue

Cyanotype printed this afternoon. Very addictive technique, and plants always look good.

Posted as part of six word Saturdays

Independence day – pretext for family lunch

View on Instagram https://instagr.am/p/CfPZrnwLooX/

Mozambique’s independence day, in case you are wondering.

Reconnected with family I hadn’t seen in years

Posted as part of six word Saturdays

I am ready for my close-up

Funny how the peacocks seemed to be posing for the photographs

Posted as part of six word Saturdays

Exhausted from muscling up my imagination

I’ve always enjoyed comics and graphic novels and have always wanted to try making one but I never signed up for a course mainly because you have to write a story and I always panic when I am asked to make up one.

But this year I finally had the courage to register for a course, and I am enjoying every bit of it, except when there are writing exercises of course.

And I try very hard not to compare myself with my classmates who given any prompt immediately write amazing stories.

Keep telling myself imagination is like a muscle, you have to exercise it…

Other six word stories here

Performing again. Simultaneously excited and nervous

Tomorrow morning our playback theatre group will perform outside on the theme of the environment. The municipal council is doing a series of performances and activities on that theme. We applied during the first lockdown and our project was one of the most voted.

And we had to wait almost 2 years because of the successive lockdowns.

We have been rehearsing every Sunday morning and sure, we are prepared, but performing in the open presents special challenges.

But I guess the day I will stop having stage fright is the day I quit being an actor, because that would mean I stopped caring.

Other six word stories here

Vacation is coming to an end

Went to Nazaré for a few days, to take a break from the city, even managed to go to the beach, though I just wet my feet, the water was far too cold.

Would have stayed longer but I had 2 doctor appointments this week.

Back to work on Monday

Posted as part of six word Saturdays

Heritage sketching at the carnival museum

Ok, it is actually called Center of arts and creativity, but the permanent collection is all about Carnival, as it is a big thing in Torres Vedras.

One of the parts I enjoyed the most was listening to interviews of people who were involved in the celebrations ever since they were little, because all the family was involved. Didn’t have time to listen to all of them though, neither to watch the videos of the crafters who make the sculptures for the parade.

Every year there is this event at the end of September called a(riscar) o património (heritage sketching) included in the European cultural heritage days. And I have started to spend this day outside Lisbon. This year I chose Torres Vedras, as I have spent many happy moments there back when life was still normal.

At the beginning, part of me was thinking: “you’re crazy, getting up at 6 a.m on a Saturday to go drawing!” But it paid off. Another wonderfully spent day.