My creation, originally uploaded by materfamilias knits.
I’ve written so little about our time in Portugal, almost nothing about Lisbon, that I’m feeling guilty, almost as if I’d snubbed or betrayed a new friend. I’ve been hurriedly trying to upload the rest of my photographs to Flickr before term begins, and yesterday I played around with the mosaic-making possibilities here — a more efficient way to share some of the everyday wonders of Lisbon. I hope to manage a few more posts before fall begins — I’d go back in a heartbeat, although the beauty is much different than Paris’s, sometimes quite tattered, careworn, sometimes flashy and exuberant, sometimes just fierce.
Wow, stunning tile work!! I love how you’ve arranged the images.
I adore tilework, I often wonder why people don’t use it more, but I guess its hard to get it just right (as they did in all these images).
Lovely collage, I’m very impressed by the tiled wall with matching cloth hanging out the window shot too – you have an artists eye!
Pseu, Cybill: The ajulejos or tiles are everywhere in Portugal and they’re so beautiful. I found it hard to put down the camera.
Having been to Italy and Greece, I can see that strong sunlight makes such a difference – as you say, places can be tattered and careworn but have a beauty about them nevertheless and I do believe that sunshine makes the difference. In my hometown in Scotland, buildings etc. that are unkempt just look like slums! Patricia
When I went to Spain, Le Duc said, “Remember Africa is not far away.” This is what he meant… the tiles photos could be taken in Morocco. I so enjoyed seeing them.
Whoops, I see I’ve misspelled azulejos above.
Patricia: Yes, I think the sunshine is a big factor for so many reasons. One, the building that gets done tends to be clad in reflective colours, always more uplifting than greys or browns. Second, the light itself, which brightens everything it touches. Third, the effect of that light on the mood of the viewer — Certainly, we were in a great mood in sunny Lisbon!
Duchesse: The Moorish influence is very strong in Lisbon, and I guess if there hadn’t been the huge earthquake, there would be even more buildings marking that influence. (I remember feeling what Le Duc expressed when sitting at a waterfront cafe table in Marseilles — and then this year in Paris, a wind deposited a sticky red material on streets and cars overnight, supposedly from Africa)