A long, long time ago, when I was young and carefree, I spent one summer in Portugal, living quite a bohemian existence. Travelling back to London at the end of my stay took me to Lisbon then Barcelona. My memory of these days is hazy, but what I do remember is the colour blue, a very particular blue, that was everywhere, on the beautiful tiles that are such a distinctive feature of Portuguese architecture, and in the sea and the skies.
In response to a call by Love Chic Living and Cunard, I started to put together a Pinterest board to sum up my memories of Portugal. But as I pinned I got a bit carried away, and started thinking how the blue of Portugal has pervaded Portuguese art and design, perhaps unwittingly, and how it could be interpreted in modern interior design.
But first, the Portuguese tiles themselves. Called Azulejo, they are painted, tin-glazed ceramic tiles, which have been produced in Portugal ever since introduced by the Moors in the 15th century. They are used on interiors and exteriors, on every kind of surface, be it a facade, interior wall, floor or ceiling. Here are some of my pins:
- Portuguese tiles, source Pinterest
- Portuguese tiles, source Pinterest
- Portuguese tiles, source Pinterest
On my Pinterest board I have included Portuguese art that is indebted to the blue of Portuguese tiles, from the modernist work of Sarah Alfonso, to urban street art in Lisbon. Also included is one of my favourite contemporary artists, Paula Rego, who was born and brought up in Portugal.
I knew that Rego drew on the tradition of Portuguese tiles in her work for the National Gallery, London, but looking more closely at her oeuvre you’ll see the blue of Portugal running through like a stream of consciousness (- or unconsciousness?). Sometimes just the shade of a skirt, sometimes a whole backdrop to a scene, it is a blue that is so much more than a colour, it is the whole history of Portugal, its architecture and its religion, its storytelling and its song.
- Paula Rego, Crivelli’s Garden
- Paula Rego, The Dance
- Paula Rego, Joseph’s Dream
I can’t remember if it was in one of the galleries in Barcelona or Lisbon that I saw the early work of Picasso, but those images are now fused with my memories of the blue of Portugal, and so a few of his ‘Blue Period’ works also made their way onto my Pinterest board.
The tradition of Portuguese tiles is still alive and well, and making its presence felt in contemporary interior design. On my board I have included more straightforward interpretations, such as the interior by Michael Smith which mixes Portuguese tiles with antique furniture, to more abstract interpretations, which deconstruct the tradition into its elements of colour and form, and imaginatively reassemble.
The last section of my Pinterest board reflects my other abiding memory of Portugal, the faces of the old women. Dressed in black, with head scarves, they all seem to have one face, wrinkled and wise, a face that has lived, loved, lost and lived again. A timeless face, that is somehow like the blue of Portugal, solid and strong, old as time itself yet constantly reinventing itself.
Though a distant memory, my time spent in Portugal was very special, and I have enjoyed trying to recapture some of its atmosphere through this post. One day I will go back, maybe when I am as old and wrinkled as the faces above, and think again about my younger self in Portugal, when, without a penny to my name or a care in the world, I was only interested in art, nature and love – maybe not so much has changed after all!
