The Laundresses of Rio Alfusqueiro

Cândido Teles was born in Ílhavo in 1921 and died in 1999. He identifies himself as a great painter of the Ria de Aveiro, Costa Nova and of maritime and lagoon tasks. Still young, the artist made his apprenticeship, through the conviviality of his closest relatives, who at the time, worked as painters at the Vista Alegre Factory. His facet of artist is also connected with his father, Amadeu Simões Teles and José Patoilo, his grandfather. At the age of 18 he met the painter Fausto Sampaio and began to accompany him, in first place to see the work and, finally, to work with him. By influence of Fausto Sampaio began to paint with oil. In 1938, he made his first exhibition at the Arrais Ançã, in Costa Nova. In 1944, he was mobilized to the Azores, where he began to paint the human figure. In 1951, he went to Angola, where he sought the figures framed in the original afforestation. He returned to the Metropolis, entering the Estado Maior course. In 1962, he traveled to Madeira where he met Julio Resende. Later, he was mobilized to command a battalion in Angola. Cândido Teles returned to the native homeland, more concretely to Évora. There he received profound teachings from Julius Resende. The colors of his canvas change: it left the dark colors and began to paint with a lot of light. Later, he returns to the war again. The palette get dark again. He did paintings where appear dirty, poor, sick and mutilated figures. But on the Island of Mozambique he return to paint marines with a lot of color, working exclusively on the human figure. Returning to Ílhavo, he made his reintegration and worked hard to find the art Xávega (fishing art), the themes of fishing in the lagoon, the tasks of the “moliço” that he tried to revive. He also returned to ceramics, an art which, from the first contacts of his grandfather's time, never gave up. He interpreted in his paintings, different environments: Aveiro, Ílhavo, Azores, Africa (Angola, Guinea, S. Tomé and Mozambique), Madeira, Alentejo, Algarve, all having a human and landscaping influence. Over is life, he received several distinctions and his art is represented in diverse national museums and in public and private collections.