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Algarve |
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Trendsetting teacher
• 01 Mar 2007 •
 IN recent years, it has become increasingly popular for people living in Lisbon and northern Portugal to buy a second home in one of the Algarve’s beach resorts. To some extent, this accounts for the many new apartment blocks that have been built. Improved transport arrangements, including the opening of the A22 motorway, have contributed towards the trend.
At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, a similar influx of wealthy people from inland Algarve towns, built beach houses on the coast. These stylish properties used mostly at weekends and during the summer, transformed the seafronts of fishing villages such as Monte Gordo, Quarteira and Armação de Pêra into exclusive, fashionable resorts.
Artist and teacher Ana Dickinson has a home beside the beach at Carvoeiro that was built by her forefathers more than 100 years ago. Their primary residence was in Lagoa’s town centre, about 8kms inland from the beach retreat.
They would no doubt be surprised to learn that their descendant, Ana, runs a full-time home, studio and classroom in the original holiday house. Situated amongst numerous cafes, bars, souvenir shops and outdoor stalls, she lives in one of the Algarve’s busiest tourist destinations.
Despite the outdoor bustle she steadily attends to normal business, teaching students techniques of how to paint on wood. Her studio and classroom are filled with a myriad of colourful objects, some made by Ana and others still in progress, by her adult students.
A course is taught during four, two-hourly sessions, students beginning with a blank wooden template shaped to resemble an animal, insect, human figure or an inanimate object such as a teapot.
There is a selection of templates to chose from, supplied by Ana. Over the weeks the painting is completed and those students who are able to work more quickly, might finish several objects during the course.
Ana is a qualified teacher and in her earlier career taught French when she lived in Johannesburg, South Africa.
She is married to an English town planner and has two grown-up sons.
When they moved to the Algarve in 1990, Ana committed her time to decorative painting, with an overriding interest in reproducing traditional designs on wood. Gradually, she developed her own contemporary style and acquired an enthusiastic following, many of them wanting Ana to teach them how her painting is done.
Her modern and vibrant work has become trendsetting and subsequently she has been commissioned to write two coffee table books to celebrate her art. She has also written several articles for English language art and craft magazines.
She teaches classes in the Algarve and in Lisbon. For more information, visit www.anadickinson.net or phone 919 341 502. |  Return to Top
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