Ponte Seca 1949

Alberto da Veiga Guignard painted this dreamlike townscape, Ponte Seca, in 1949, and you can see he’s working fast, intuitively, letting the paint lead the way. The surface is alive with marks – dabs and dashes of color that coalesce into buildings, hills, and sky. Look at how he renders the rooftops: thin strokes of brown and ochre laid side by side, capturing the texture of the tiles with amazing economy. The paint isn’t overworked; it's fresh and direct. See how those colors in the foreground, the greens, browns and blues, they almost vibrate against one another. It's as if Guignard is less interested in representing the town exactly as it is, and more about capturing its essence, its spirit. There's a touch of naïve art here, a kinship with artists like Henri Rousseau, who created their own worlds, full of wonder and enchantment. Guignard does the same. He invites us to see the world with new eyes, to find beauty in the everyday, and to embrace the unexpected.