Painting of
Manuel Casa Branca The Oak-plantations of Alentejo are called “Montado�. This space is one of ritual, a landscape built throughout thousands of years. Manuel Casa Branca gets from its symbols, the cork tree (Quercus suber), the dolmen, the menhir, the elements that create his painting. With a concerned look at the constant aggression on the ecologic and historic patrimony, he sees in the cork tree the symbol of all fallen trees, of all ecosystems in danger. The painting of a place can be a call of alert for an ongoing globalisation without scruples. A solution of balance between the forest and mankind also emanates from these trees. When people take care of cork trees, they offer them gestures of millenary choreographies. Researching about painting is also his task. Figuration is thought and built on the elements of plastic language, and exploited by contemporaneity. All these environments come together in several ways.