This series was inspired by a recent trip to Porto in Portugal. The city is full of secret doorways, ancient windows and crumbling buildings peeling with paint and graffitied, with the abandoned nestled up against the very much lived in.

This is a special place and the paintings below are based on memory. I did not draw before making these paintings – I simply wandered, took photographs and absorbed the essence of the place. Returning to the studio I painted what I had seen – none of these windows exist anywhere other than on these canvases. But they have their origin in memory and are a response to my experience of this magical city.

Porto window ©Mary Price 2015

Porto window ©Mary Price 2015

Cat looking in ©Mary Price 2015

Porto doorway ©Mary Price 2015