RUI CARRUCO · 2026

The Memory of Things

A Memória das Coisas

In this painting, I begin with simple, familiar elements — flowers, fruit, vessels and fabric — to create a still life suspended somewhere between observation and memory. I am less interested in faithfully reproducing the objects than in exploring how light, matter and time transform the way we perceive them.

I worked primarily with a palette knife, allowing texture and relief to remain visible across the canvas. Geometric planes fragment and subtly displace the objects, as though different moments or viewpoints were coexisting within a single image.

The yellow lemons, red pomegranates and flowers, and touches of blue ceramic emerge from a quiet palette of creams, ochres and earthy tones. Through these contrasts, I seek a balance between presence and silence, between the physical materiality of paint and the fragile nature of the things depicted. Even the most ordinary objects can carry stories — and sometimes become vessels for memory.

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