A few months ago, I saw her curious characters for the first time. I was at the Gama Rama Art Gallery in downtown Faro and, from amongst the abundance of intriguing artworks on display, my attention was grabbed by many charming and somewhat cheeky creatures. There were postcards featuring cats, dogs, plants, birds and bears. There were mermaids and moustached mermen swimming about in the ocean, and, on land, a selection of eccentric beachgoers enjoying a rather fruity beach day – many of them also rocking a groovy tash.
Bizarre beach bums
These peculiar and playful beings are the work of one of the gallery’s resident artists, Joana Rosa Bragança. Rosa, as she later told me to call her, is an illustrator, a printmaker, a photographer, and a sculptress. At the Gama Rama Gallery, she holds workshops where she teaches people linocut techniques to make their own stamps on rubber blocks with a lovely ‘fauna and flora’ theme.
“Gosh, she sounds like a good story,” I thought. “It would be nice to meet her.” And, in the way these things go, once you wish upon a star, I ran into Rosa a few weeks later when she had a stall at the Spring Fair in the costume museum in São Brás do Alportel – and then again a few weeks later on Farol Island in the Ria Formosa.
This island, it turns out, is very dear to Rosa’s heart. Indeed, it’s the source of much of her inspiration, especially when it comes to those zany bathers or banhistas of hers.
The islands of Farol, Culatra and Armona also have a famous folklore legend associated with them, and it is from this that Rosa found ideas for her 2020 short film Maré (Tide).
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I needed to arrange to meet Rosa when I had my pencil and paper at the ready. And where better to meet than at her parents’ shop on the seafront in Olhão?
Paint it purple
Rosa turned up by bicycle when we met outside this little art-filled shop called the Pinta Roxa. A chalk fisherman with a seagull on his head pointed the way inside. Here we met Rosa’s mum. It turns out her grandma lives upstairs and her parents, who were both teachers before they retired, opened this shop where, after school, they would sell work from local artists – including their daughter’s.
Looking around this art and craft shop, there were all kinds of interesting works from other distinctly Algarvian artists, including model replicas of very local boats and photos of charming Portuguese chimneys. Rosa’s characters again jump out at customers that wander in, and offer fun alternatives to the more classic seaside postcards that you might otherwise find.
Rosa was born at the end of the world (in Sagres) but moved to Olhão when she was one year old. She studied painting and illustration in Lisbon and Évora, and spent a little time in Norway. But even though Rosa admits the Algarve is a tricky place to be an artist – it’s her home.
Her hometown offers plenty of untapped inspiration for much of her artwork, be it the hard-working, sometimes a little gruff (yet secretly gentle!) local fishermen or the packs of tourists that flock to its shores in the summertime. That said, not all her characters are inspired by real life. Rosa clearly has an enchanting world inside her head, from which many of her imaginative beings can only be visiting.
A glimpse into her world
The walls were full with all kinds of fun and furry creatures, and feature anything from a peaceful woman with almond blossom growing out of her hair to an assortment of mermaids and children going for a scooter ride with Mr Fox.
One of my favourites was a painting of three women whizzing down the road on a bicycle – washing line in tow. This was a poster from 2019 when Rosa did all the prints for the Algarve trio girl band The Mercoilas.
There were also horses with rain jackets, which Rosa had been amused to see while in Norway. She decided she would have a go at dressing up her own more colourful interpretations with interesting hairdos and boots to match.
Rosa loves to paint these wonderfully colourful beings with aquarelle – but she also doesn’t need colour to make them wonderful. With watercolour, every brush stroke counts. While this results in aesthetic simplicity, it is also quite daunting. Rosa likes to simplify things sometimes and has a few black and white collections, too, which allow her to play more freely.
Turning the tide
Now, let’s go back to Rosa’s mini-movie Maré and that local legend I mentioned earlier – the legend of Arraul. Arraul was the last son of Atlantis, who was swept into the sea by a fierce storm and swallowed by a whale, which later brought him ashore near Olhão. Arraul loved the region so much that he walked up to the Cerro de São Miguel and, bucket by bucket, built the islands known as the Ria Formosa to shield and protect its coastline.
Rosa grew up hearing the legend – even if it was an embellished version from her grandparents, who also added that Arraul used to dive under the islands and come out the other side with shipwrecks hanging in his ears like earrings.
When years later, Rosa got the opportunity to make a short film for Animanostra, she drew (literally) inspiration for her own friendly aquatic giant, who is also spat out by a whale and comes to shore full of good intentions and seaweed in his hair. He builds an island and befriends a small boy who truly treasures the beauty and the peace of the place. However, when the idyllic isle is overrun by obnoxious tourists, leaving havoc and rubbish in their wake, our gentle giant wakes up and lets out a great big yawn that sends them all heading for the hills.
It’s a very lovely little film. But gosh, maybe we should indeed ‘take tide’ and make sure to be on our best behaviour when visiting these precious islands – so the real Arraul won’t have to come back.
If you would like to find out more about Rosa then please add her on Instagram @joanarosab or visit her website at www.joanarosab.com
