CARLOS FARINHA, The Portuguese Chagall

Carlos Farinha, forty-two years old, started painting when his family returned to Portugal from France at the age of  fifteen.  He is the son of José Antonio Ribeiro Farinha  and  Maria do Carmo Rosa Lourenço, who live in the village of Maxiais, province of  Beirã, near the city of Castelo Branco, home of the renowned  New Christian Jewish doctor Amato Lusitano (1511-1568).  His mother continues the traditional New Christian occupation of weaver.

Carlos has worked full time as a painter since 2007. He was won many prizes for his work. Inspired by Chagall and Anglo-Lusa painter Paula Rego, he describes his work as the “world at his bedside”.  When he was nineteen, future Nobel prize winner Jose Saramago purchased two of his paintings. His next exhibition is in Paris in the fall of 2013 and Brussels in 2014.