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My life lately :)

Not a project. The rest of it: what I have been part of, who I spend the time with, and the drawing that runs underneath all of the work on the other pages.

A long table of friends at dinner in a room full of plants

I was born in 2003, and I have always been fascinated by drawing, by making things, and by taking things apart to find out how they work.

Sport has been the other constant. I competed in basketball until I was twenty-two, alongside whatever else I could get involved in.

Standing in a doorway in a green Esgueira basketball shirt, number 15

Sitting against a rough orange wall in a doorway of light

I studied Design at the University of Aveiro, and found myself drawn further and further outside the classroom. I volunteered at the European University Basketball Championship and at ENED, the national design students’ meeting, and later left for Erasmus in Cologne, where I kept playing competitively for a German club.

Two friends with their arms around each other at an event

Drawing on a metal walkway above a village, seen from behind in the afternoon sun

A crowd of friends at a bar counter, glasses raised together

It was while I was in Germany that I was invited to join the leadership of the AAUAv, the University of Aveiro Students’ Association. I did not realise then how much I would learn from it. Coming back to Portugal made that clear.

A sketchbook spread in ink and watercolour: the inside of an empty train, red seats and yellow handrails running away down the carriage — Drawn on the way to somewhere, which is most of them

A large group of friends at an event, arms around each other

A group photographed in front of a lit stage sign

I ended up organising university events at a scale I had never worked at: the Academic Week concert programme, integration activities for new students, national university finals, fairs, celebrations, and events run with organisations from outside the university. I also represented Aveiro as an ECIU ambassador.

A group sitting together outdoors at night

Four friends with beers, arms around each other, at a party at night

A group lying along a low wall in open country, hills and cloud behind them

A blurred thumbs-up at night, a crowd and streetlights behind

Alongside that, travelling around Europe, carrying on with drawing, photography, 3D and making, and a spell as one of the staff working on Mirror Me, the Elastique Design exhibition, learning how one is run from the inside of it.

Sketchbook watercolour of a Menorcan cove: a rock arch, two sailing boats and swimmers in the shallows — Ink first, watercolour over it, finished on the spot or not at all

Three friends on a Scottish hilltop above a loch, wrapped up against the cold

Three friends in winter gear at night against a stone wall

Sitting on a rock on a Scottish hillside in a Norwegian beanie

A group standing on a hillside with a village and open country behind

After Erasmus I was invited to join the studio where I work now, with a former professor of mine. Around the same time I co-founded Sketch Fest with one of my housemates from Germany, turning an idea about drawing into a real event, and then into an ongoing project.

Throwing a pot at a potter’s wheel in a workshop — Making something with my hands, at a speed nobody is paying for

Feet working the treadle of a potter’s wheel on a brick floor

Two people sitting at the top of the Douro vineyard terraces, drawing

Standing in a doorway in warm afternoon light

Friends wrestling in the sand on a beach

Drawing came first

It is the only part of my practice with no client, no brief and no deadline, which is exactly why the rest of the work depends on it. Mostly it is routine: a way of keeping moments on paper.

A long sketchbook spread in ink and watercolour: a tiled house among olive trees on a slope, drawn across both pages — A whole spread for one house and the trees around it

Sketchbook watercolour of boats moored against pale rocks, a swimmer in the foreground

Three women leaning in to look at a sketchbook on a table above the water — The best audience a drawing gets

Watercolour and ink portrait of a laughing grey-haired man in a green shirt — Someone who sat still long enough

Lying in long grass in the sun, hands behind the head

What drives me is creativity, drawing and photography, but mostly people, and the experiences we build together. I want to keep travelling, keep exploring, and keep making things: objects, events, or simply new excuses to bring people together.

Passionate about people, stories, and creating them.