The painting exhibition «Retratos de Alvor», by António Rosado, is on display until the 20th of April in the atrium of the Municipal Water and Waste Company of Portimão (EMARP).
António Rosado was born in Vendas Novas, Alentejo, on February 24, 1934.
The habit of family and friends calling him by the diminutive of Tónica is the basis for the choice of the pseudonym ACIOT for his works. His preference for drawing and sports, combined with the fact that he was born in a modest family and in a context that was not very motivating for these abilities, did not favor his school life, which was reduced to obligatory at the time.
Entering as a carpenter's apprentice in the workshop of a maternal uncle represented, in this context, a “true preparation for life”.
From then on, his free time would be used to practice the most varied sports and apply his taste for painting and drawing, illustrating wall newspapers, painting portraits of his favorite film artists, producing comic strips, etc.
In 1965, he left the profession of carpenter to work as a janitor at the Vendas Novas City Council, a position he held for eight years.
Including this function the supervision of works in the municipality, he is obliged to have close contact with construction projects and the chance to materialize his taste for drawing in a professional activity makes him invest in this area.
Enrolled in correspondence courses and applied to the “Master of Works” course at Évora Industrial School, which he completed in 1969.
The incompatibility of the two functions forces him to leave his position to devote himself full-time to the elaboration of projects, which are widely represented in constructions throughout the city's parishes.
In 1973, he was invited to be a draftsman at the Practical School of Artillery, where he remained until his retirement in 1998.
During this period, and in addition to the functions inherent to the position, he carried out some experiments in the field of oil painting, which resulted in several works, almost all of which were evident in that School and of which "The entrance to the Shooting Polygon", "Exercises of Shooting with Howitzer” and “The construction of the Palácio das Passagens”, the latter appearing in a brochure of the Museum of the Practical School of Artillery.
Alongside this professional activity, he developed the technique of oil painting on themes such as Hunting, Landscape and Alentejo Motifs.
In 2001, as a tribute to his land, he began to develop an Urban Landscape work, representing not only the most emblematic places in the city of Vendas Novas, but also those that, allied to its own history, most touched its sensibility. .
This work resulted in his participation in two group exhibitions (International Exhibition of Plastic Arts, 2003 and 2004) and two individual exhibitions (Hotel ACER, May 2008 and Museum of the Practical School of Artillery, May 2011, during the celebrations of 150 years of the EPA).
His preference for Portimão for vacations and his daughter's recent residence in the parish of Alvor substantiated his admiration for this parish and its people.
Adopting this picturesque land as his own, he decides to portray the nooks and crannies that, in a more significant way, inhabit his memories.
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