High Life

HIGH LIFE #11 Aug 2017 41 The young painter grew up studying in a number of different schools. Beginning his education in a Portuguese school, he moved to a Chinese institution only to end up returning to the Portuguese system. “I had no idea what I wanted to do,” he laughs. “In the Portuguese school I had to choose which area I wanted to study. Frankly, I ended up choosing Arts because I thought it would be easier to pass!” Be that as it may, Filipe’s passion quickly grew and he soon took up a course at Macau Polytechnic Institute. Now, he says, he couldn’t imagine doing anything else. Nocturne is, above all else, an homage to Macau with Filipe’s classical take on the city with a touch of darkness providing a twist. His watercolors escape from the ordinary precisely because he chose to depict the solitude of a city usually crowded with people. Among Filipe’s personal favorites is “Waiting Till Morning ” , a unique depiction of an empty bus stop. It’s a simple theme that manages to flood the viewerwith feelings. Another, “Trap ” – one of the smaller pictures in the exhibition – catches the eye for the superb contrast of dark nightwith the ochre tones of a building.