After a few days in Rio, Perola and I decide to take a trip to Mangaratiba, where her family has a beach house. We can begin painting the portals for our next project, “The Aces of Perception,” there.

We drive for two hours past endless palm trees, magnificent mountains, small Brazilian towns and epic views of the ocean blending its deep horizon into the azure sky.

If I squint my eyes while looking out the window I see green-blue-green-blue-green-green-blueeeeeeeeee-green-green-blue.

The beach house is pretty perfect, overlooking the bay with a big wooden deck for us to work on. We work in intervals all day between swimming in the bay, climbing the big rocks on the beach, lounging in the chairs overlooking the water. I want to pinch myself, its so perfect.

I soak in as much as I can, I know in a few weeks I will be in Vienna, which is freezing cold, and then Alaska… which is BELOW freezing.

Perola, staining the wood panels for the new portals

We mix different stains and enhance the grain patterns in the wood.

We will stay in Mangaratiba until we have sanded and stained all 5 portals, then we will return to Rio to varnish them and begin the painting!

More about the Aces of Perception project soon~