Lisbon (Portugal christmas card to Harold Weston) 1963

Carlos Botelho made this Christmas card to Harold Weston with watercolour, and it's like a gentle, watery dream of Lisbon. The way the colors bleed and blend, it’s less about capturing a place exactly, and more about a feeling, a memory, something fleeting. Looking closely, you can see how Botelho lets the watercolour do its thing. It's thin, transparent in places, pooling in others, creating these soft, undefined edges. Check out the roofs – how the colors just hint at form, letting the white of the paper shine through. It’s all suggestion, not statement. The cross, high above the city, is barely there, just a ghost of a structure. It’s as if Botelho is whispering, “Here’s a place, a moment, a feeling…” Botelho's work has the same kind of quiet, poetic abstraction as someone like Raoul Dufy. Both understood that painting isn't about copying the world, but about creating a new one, full of possibilities. And, of course, it's an invitation, not an answer.