The Making of "Azorean Heritage"

Mixed media of paper and acrylic on canvas, 40x40 cm. or 15x15 in.

This small painting entitled "Azorean Heritage", is based on my ancestry from the Azores and its' islands and part of a series that I'm working on.

It all started when, by curiosity, I started to investigate and create a family tree, based on my father's side of the family. I found that all church documents in the Azores from 1550 to 1910, relative to baptisms, marriages and deaths, were all digitized and available online.

An example: the wedding of my 4th great grand-parents in 1766

So I proceeded to create my family tree and in the process I was inspired to create a painting. I then researched a couple of endemic species of flora and fauna from the islands, there were many to choose from.

I used prints of the documents I found, aged and colored them and then used them as a back round for the flora and fauna. The bird is a Azorean Chaffinch and the flowers are Prunus Azorica, both endemic to the Islands of the Azores.

I´ve also experimented with image treating the painting, to get other color saturations and hues, here's an example...

Hope you like them!