The Art

The art of tilework is one of the most solid and a persistent representation of the Portuguese culture in the world and it has been uninterruptedly used for the decoration of houses and cities for over 500 years.

It was during the Arab occupation of the Iberian Peninsula that the Portuguese had their first contact with wall ceramics. Since then the creating process has never ended, creating a great diversity of works as well as experience, fears, joys, stimulating the imagination of the artists.

These works of art revolutionize places, both inside and outside, create feelings of light, colour and freshness; they work as a catalyst for the decorative imagination and also for the representation of pictures, inspired by mythological stories, depicting chapters of the history of the country, describing elegant leisure moments, landscapes, trades, etc...

History makes Portugal the country where you can see the largest number of tiles, reinforcing the idea of an aesthetic and lasting connection between architecture and tilework, even today being almost unthinkable that architects, urbanists, decorators and others have foregone this type of art.

The Artist

The "marriage" between brush and hand works... amongst colours and penetrating smells, clashing on the naked and virgin canvas through brief and surgical movements.

The accuracy of the plastic expression stands out through the designs reflected on the puzzle of symmetric pieces of 15 cm x 15 cm in size.

In the lands of "Sicó" works a character with the strange habits of a real artist. In the world of arts, as in Nature, what is precious is the most difficult thing to find – only the persistent and experts are endowed with this genuine truffle.

Without being detrimental to the art or the artist, we were courageous in starting to search for the artisan to find out as much as possible about the artistic life of Belmiro Pita. What is the secret? What plan might have been sent by the hand of the Creator and materialized in his work?

Belmiro seeks his own perfection which he considers to be unattainable; he actually says that even if one day he reaches it, it will be his death as an artist. He sees himself as a man of discoveries, always improving his skills. It is in the search for ideal combinations and fragrances that perfume his paintings that resides Belmiro’s artistic essence.

His art transformed him in what it is his "modus vivendi", his work is his life and his life is his work, and he lives for it 8760 hours a year. He told us that some time ago his will to create and the flourishing ideas were so huge that he used to sleep near his canvas, like a guardian of a temple which for him was the most sacred of all – his studio.

Once in his altar we were invited to embark on a "transiberian" of emotions and visual effects that appear before our eyes. All set and with an open mind to enter into the fascinating world of Belmiro, from where it is difficult to come back since colours invade the symmetric shapes of our bodies, transforming our fingers into brushes and our soul into a picture full of life.