"Esporão" labels

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“Abel Mota was in his bedroom when he got a call from designer Eduardo Aires inviting him to design an Esporão label. Such was his surprise that all he could do was mumble “Okay, thank you.” Just 21 years old at the time and not even having finished his degree in painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts of Porto, he couldn’t imagine that his work would appear so soon alongside masters like Alberto Carneiro, Júlio Pomar, or Julião Sarmento. But age is merely a sign post for recognition and experience, and talent does not choose age.
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Abel Mota is the youngest artist to ever design a label for the Esporão collection. His enormous talent and identity as an artist are now showcased on Esporão Reserva bottles. We accompanied they oung artist through the process of designing the labels, on his journey through the subtle colours of Herdade do Esporão.
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Autumn is one of the most beautiful seasons at the estate, and it was just starting when Abel arrived with canvases, easels, and paints. With an innocent gaze that avidly took in every single detail, dressed in beige and a straw hat, he became an extension of a landscape bathed in browns, oranges and reds.
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Without properly planning his day, he knew he wanted to seek out earthier tones to associate with the white grapes and redderand purple ones for the reds. So he divided his workday into segments and times of day – morning and sunset. “My days started really early. I’d guess how many canvases I’d be working on that day, throw everything in the car, and set out looking for the right angle. Using wine tourism as a point of reference, Iranged around. I think I must have painted my way across the entire estate”. The first day he started on the banks of the lake, with the view from the olive grove to the wineries, and then pressed on into the vineyards.  He spent his last few days on the terrace of the hotel garden, taking advantage of a broader perspective. “When I ventured into the vineyards, I started looking down and studying the ground. It wasn’t just the sky that changed depending on the time of day, the land did too. At sunset, it took on saturated shades of sienna and burgundy. From that point on, I kept looking down and I encountered an incredible palette of colours in the earth».

‍(...) «All landscape painting is a good excuse to paint. It’s a happy sort of painting. There’s a pleasure to it. It’s like you see the land with different eyes. The landscape gives you time to notice things. And everything you see enriches the painting. I really enjoy this kind of painting, because I’m in the moment, a moment that’s going to end and that I have to take advantage of. I put everything onto that canvas. My paintings from this visit are proof that this was a good excuse to paint.»(...)

         ^{Viviana Martins, AS HISTÓRIAS DE UM RÓTULO: ABEL MOTA, Esporão.com, 2022}

‍Full article here

‘(...) Júlio Resende, Júlio Pomar, Alberto Carneiro,Julião Sarmento, Graça Morais, Pedro Cabrita Reis... the list of artists whohave personalised Esporão bottle labels since 1985, the year of the Alentejoestate's first wine, is long. The book Colheitas e Artistas 1985 - 2015,launched in 2018, already mentioned 29 Portuguese artists, two Angolans and oneBrazilian. They were recently joined by Abel Mota, who at 22 is now theyoungest artist to illustrate a label, interpreting not only the new vintagesof Esporão Reserva, but also, and especially, the autumn landscape of browns,oranges and reds of the estate, where he spent four days. (...)’

       ^{Luís Octávio Costa, Abel Mota é o mais novo artista apintar rótulos do Esporão, Público, 27 de Julho de 2022}

 Full article here

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