Jose Cipriano da Silva
If you want to see an artist's work here, you phone up and ask if you can visit him at home, where he has his studio and his paintings hung on the walls. We have one of Cipriano's paintings at home in Burton (given to us by our friends Leonardo and Miriam) and I was keen to see all his other work.

It was a treat to visit his house and see his work - all influenced by Florianopolis. He is 71 years old, self-taught and still experimenting with new ways of working. He didn't even start painting until he was 62.

I particularly like his more traditional work depicting local scenes as they are. He uses such wonderfully bright clear colours. The sun seems to shine out of his paintings and his paintings are so 'clean'!

He will have an exhibition in the city next month and has invited us to the opening. I think I will be buying another painting before returning to England!