I learned about the site from a blog post by co-founder Eduardo Bajzek, who maintains Perspectivas e Sketches, a blog of his own sketching and professional architectural rendering projects.

While I lived in Rio, I was very impressed with the huge numbers and amazing talents of the artists and designers working in Brazil today. While the country is justly famous for its contributions to world music, it deserves to be much better known for its visual arts and design. Beatriz Milhazes and Vik Muniz are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the contemporary art world in Brazil!

Initial washes of the cut-up horned melon or kiwano segments completed.

I spotted these horned melons, Cucumis metuliferus, at Kroger’s the other day and simply had to buy them. When we went to Rio on our pre-contract mission, I spied this fruit at a neighborhood greengrocer and bought one just to look at it. Sadly, I can’t recall its Brazilian Portuguese name now. They were nearly always available at Hortifrutti, but were not one of the more popular fruits.

Kiwanos, as they are also known, are cadmium yellow with bright orange ocelot spots surrounding the “horns.” Another common English name for them is blowfish fruit.

Their seeds are surrounded by gelatinous, juicy, lime-green sacs. The flavor is reminiscent of a slightly sour cucumber. There doesn’t seem to be any distinctive undertone that could be emphasized by adding salt or sugar.

In this case, looks are everything!

Poster courtesy of Paulo Ormindo and Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro

Paulo Ormindo has sent me the notice for the 2011 botanical illustration courses offered by the Escola Nacional de Botânica Tropical of the Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro. These are extension courses in classical botanical illustration aimed at artists, designers, scientists, and educators who work with botanical subject matter. Specimens are from the Jardim Botânico and its greenhouses. The school also offers a master’s course in environmental conservation and biodiversity research.

From 15-31 March the school offers a 2-week workshop in botanical illustration drawing techniques, using pencil and ink. Other courses run semi-weekly or on Saturdays only for about 3 months. All courses are held at the Escola Nacional de Botânica Tropical, in the renovated, historic Solar da Imperatriz. Some class sessions may also meet in the Jardim’s greenhouses. Malena Barreto and Paulo Ormindo are the course instructors. Both artists were awarded the Margaret Mee Fellowship to pursue botanical illustration studies and research at Kew Gardens in London, and have since enjoyed distinguished careers. Both instructors are fluent in English, for those students whose Portuguese is not advanced enough for discussing art techniques.

If you live in the Rio de Janeiro metropolis, what better way to learn how to transform the inspiring tropical flora around you into a beautiful botanical illustration!

Dulce was awarded the Margaret Mee Fellowship to study and research botanical illustration at London’s Kew Gardens in 1990-1991. More recently she has completed a large portfolio of paintings commissioned by Vale Brasil, and created and led a series of workshops to teach teenagers scientific observational drawing.

Gilberto Castro of Castro Navigation owns and operates the Otter, which was built to his own design. Accomodations are comfortable, hunting-lodge rustic. Each double cabin has its own shower and head and individual A/C. The main saloons also are air-conditioned. The ladies who run the galley serve up delicious, fresh, traditional Amazonian dishes. Mr. Castro hires excellent local guides and is himself a naturalist with a very good reputation in Brazil. Among other things, he hosted Margaret Mee on her last expedition and helped her locate the rare night-blooming Cereus cactus which was the subject of one of her final masterpieces.

During the workshop you’ll get acquainted with the wonders of the rainforest and have lots of opportunities to draw and paint the beautiful flora. After an early morning cafezinho, everyone boards motor canoes for a dawn ride to see the river and gather specimens. Returning to the boat for a hearty breakfast, workshop participants settle into the upper saloon for the first painting session of the day. Lunch is served midday, followed by more painting or possibly an excursion. Sunset is celebrated by a nature cruise in the motor canoes before dinner. Non-painting spouses/partners may join Gilberto and his guides for fishing and other activities. Sightseeing includes a day trip into Manaus, a visit to a living museum on a former rubber plantation, and more.

The cruise departs Manaus on 16 May and returns on 25 May 2011. Fees including the workshop, food and lodging aboard the Otter are US$2,150/R$3.000. This price does NOT include airfare. If you are a US citizen, you will need to apply now for a tourist visa. UK subjects and EU citizens do not need visas to enter Brazil.  Dulce and Gilberto are both fluent in English, and the trip coordinator, Lorraine Kaminsky Martins, is an American who has lived in Brazil for many years.

For more details, please contact Lorraine Kaminsky Martins, tel. +55 21 2257 1510, email lorraine13 AT terra DOT com DOT br

Tonight we fly out of Rio to our next adventure—in Houston, Texas!

Corcovado shines in the returning sunlight

After the heavy rains earlier this week, the sunshine yesterday was a welcome relief. Corcovado sparkles with the Jardim d’Alah, the canal and park that separates Ipanema from Leblon, in the foreground.

An uprooted ficus tree on Visconde de Albuquerque, Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro was hit by three days of heavy rains and wind this week. Some 200 people lost their lives in the state, most in landslides. The landslides occurred in the mountainside favelas. Earth and rocks, already destabilized by illegal deforestation and unlicensed residential construction, were loosened by the vast amounts of rain and avalanched, burying residents in the debris. Another factor exacerbating street flooding was the high tide entering the canals and canalized rivers that drain the Lagoa and provide sea passage to both sewage and rain run-off and coinciding with the period of heaviest rain.

The tragedy highlights the need for both improvement to civic infrastructure and more importantly, for land reform laws that would make it possible for all of Rio’s residents to lease or purchase housing in the urbanized zones served by public utilities and construction safety codes.

Corcovado on the cluttered skyline of midtown Leblon, Rio de Janeiro

This is our view of Corcovado from our hotel apartment’s varanda (balcony) here in Leblon, shot on 5 April when we moved in for our last few days in Rio de Janeiro. This is a much more normal version of “a window that looks out on Corcovado.”

Ipanema beach near Posto 9, 2 pm on 4 April 2010

Saturday afternoon before Easter, and the beach is hopping near Posto 9, Ipanema. It was sunny, but a bit cooler than it had been earlier in the week. Ipanema was full of tourists, Brazilian and foreign. It was a good thing everyone got their fill of sun, because:

Easter Sunday morning, Ipanema beach at Arpoador, looking west

Easter Sunday dawned with overcast skies. The early strollers and sunworshippers got out as usual, but the tourists were no doubt disappointed.

The last sunrise seen from our Rio apartment

Dawn vista on the last morning in our apartment here in Rio de Janeiro.

We’ve been so very blessed to see this wonderful panorama every morning for 3 years. Our best wishes to the next inhabitants, whoever they may be!