Who is Mr P
Mr P is a spirit that wonders through layers of a multitude of possible realities,
trying to create bridges through time and space.
Born in the late 17th century, Mr P was a full time artist, exalted portraitist of his King and of his time.
Born in Torres Vedras at 5.30 in the morning of 28 July 1682, he grew and developed his intelect through a Jesuit education.
His interest in the arts flourished after connecting with an uncle who, being a equerry of
D. Luis da Cunha, (famous Portuguese and higly praised diplomat) enchants the boy with stories regarding the arts that are being done in London and The Hague.
His mother, already a widow, arranges for her son to go to study under the internationally famous Portuguese Court Portrait Painter Feliciano de Almeida at his studio in Lisbon and later, after the master'r death, he moves to England under the direct patronage of D. Luis da Cunha himself.
Arriving there, Mr P promptly heads to Godfrey Kneller's studio where he learns his metier of portraiture with the great masters like Van Dyck and Peter Lely.
With the resolution of El Rei D. João V to build the Real Basilica de Mafra, Mr P then decides to return to Portugal and join the Royal Court, taking up the post of Major Painter of the Kingdom, such are his credentials !
Connected with all the great masters of his time, Mr P lived mostly in Lisbon, refusing to create a school to teach his crafts...
Thus he lived painting portraits throughout his life until the big earthquake stroke Lisbon in 1755. Whatever remained from his existence perished with his own life on that day.
He was 73 years old.
What is Mr P
"Mr P" is an history related art project that reflects the author's passion for the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
It's aim is to create bridges between 1720 and 2020 through period imagery and language but with contemporary attitude.
The same contemporaneity is mirrored in his artistic work through a pictorial expressionistic fauvism but, as stated already, "playing" with the imagery of the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
Another important aspect within the project is an atempt to spread and enrich Portugal's history through creating or adding faces to historical people that have been forgotten.
Last but not the least, there's also a spiritual component within Mr P. By combining your face on a historical based painted portrait, you'll get in touch with other possible, selves, past parallel ones.
As inspiration source, Mr P's project ranges also between epochs.
Names like Hyacinthe Rigaud and Nicolas Largiliere are "scrambled" with vivid impressionistic or expressionistic mannerisms of a Frans Hals or a Van Gogh or sometimes with the almost monochromatic flatness approach of Giorgio Morandi for Mr P's paintings. As for sculpture there has been deep study of the works by Bernini and Girardon but with a somewhat loose technical attitude specially regarding materials, which paper mache and paper clay are the main mediums.
Other inspiration sources are, of course, old fashion prints from people like Robert Bonnart, Watteau, Johann Georg Pinzel, the Meissen world, the Portuguese brothers Rafael and Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro, Aubrey Beardsley, Isabelle de Borchgrave, Jeff Koons, Javier Marin, Erika Takacs, Kris Kuksi, playmobil toys, dollhouse miniatures, films like "The draughtsman's contract", "Rob Roy", ready made art objects and street art, etc
All in all to portray and revive Portuguese rich historical realities throughout the centuries and to point out that maybe what you see isn't just what you see.