the ipanema girl...

Tall and tanned
and young and lovely
the girl from Ipanema goes walking
and when she passes
each one she passes
goes....
ah....
Anyone out there remember this classic jazz track sung by Stan Getz?
I do. I absolutely love it and years ago it summed up a time and a place for me.
The year was 2001 and I was living and working in Edinburgh. My year of living overseas on a working visa and I was 24...
During the Autumn months I went travelling to places like Italy, Spain and Portugal. It was an amazing trip and it was so inspiring.... I had travelled to Europe once before, but this trip was different. I was really living over there and trying to understand each and every culture that I moved through.....
Places like Barcelona, Lisbon + Granada were exciting cities that were full of life, and for me, songs like The Girl from Ipanema will always take me back there, as it describes a lost summer and a past love.
Anyway...when I got back to my tiny shared flat in Scotland I was hooked on a memory, a sensation and a colour palette that had to be rendered with whatever art materials I had!
The sketch above is from that time and it truly takes me back...


The poem above and the sketch of my chic European woman is also from that time. They both formed the basis for a solo exhibition I had in 2003 called The Girl from Ipanema and the large sketch below was the image for the flyer...
Yesterday I had to pull it out and re shoot it, and it was so great to see her again! The memories came flooding back; the amazing trip to Europe and the exhibition itself as it was my first solo show, and the first time I had called myself an artist!

There is still something about this work that I love...

The fluidity? The energy? The colours? Not sure... But its something Ive never been able to truly capture again. Maybe I need another trip to Barcelona?!

Above and below are two oil on canvas works that were major pieces for this body of work...

Above is a work called Blueprint II and below is Small Spaces 2003.

They both have happy homes and occasionally I have visitation rights! Which is lovely as they are specially works that are more than simply paintings.

They embody a time and space in my life that was fun, exploratory, inquisitive and colourful....

And that makes me smile....