Many of you will know that Alyson is an artist that creates modern and bright acrylic paintings here in the Algarve – and having just completed her latest painting; and been asked lots of times where her inspiration comes from for her work – we thought we would hand over the latest blog post to her to share some of her work and the places in the Algarve that have inspired some of her favourite pieces. We’ve added links to appropriate blog posts for you throughout as well so that if you find somewhere you love – you can find out more about it too.

‘Secret Silves’ © Art by Alyson Sheldrake

The painting above has literally just dried on the easel – and is a theme that I love to return to – those fabulous little side streets and village views that are so evocative of the Algarve that we know and love so well.

Silves is a fabulous place for a Sunday afternoon stroll – and if you know the back streets well, then you can avoid that steep slippy cobbled street up to the main cathedral! You can enjoy a full tour of Silves via this post:

Castle Cathedral Cobbles and Medieval Charm – Spotlight on Silves

Another village that I love to paint is our home town of Ferragudo:

‘Rua Tranquila’ © Art by Alyson Sheldrake

This is one of the pretty side streets that has a profusion of Bougainvillea that scatters the cobbles with such pretty flowers – you can often find me walking our little dog around here every day.

We shared our love of Ferragudo with you in this post back in 2011:

Discovering Ferragudo

One of my favourite themes has to be the fabulous boats that you find all round the Algarve – I especially love the traditional painted boats pulled up onto the beach in winter:

‘Carvoeiro Boats’ © Art by Alyson Sheldrake

For more art work in Carvoeiro – you might enjoy our blog post about the painted electricity boxes in the town:

Carvoeiro Boxes – bringing colour to Carvoeiro

Alvor is another place that always has a great selection of boats to paint from – this is the newly-restored lifeboat:

‘Pride of Alvor’ © Art by Alyson Sheldrake

Churches are another common theme in my paintings – this painting of the church at Alte was a commission for a lovely client who lives in Alte – we wandered round the pretty village together chatting through ideas for the painting – and came up with the same theme!

‘The Church at Alte’ © Art by Alyson Sheldrake

For more about Alte, you can pop over to this post:

The Unspoilt Village of Alte

And talking of unspoilt places – and back to boats again – sometimes it is the little hidden places that have the most wonderful surprises – this is a fabulous traditional boat that we found moored at the tiny harbour point of Mexilhoeira da Carregação (look it up!)

‘Serendipity’ © Art by Alyson Sheldrake

This little harbour is not far from one of our secret favourite places – although we keep getting told off by people for sharing this post with you all (!)

Our Secret sítio das fontes

Another place that we enjoyed sharing with you on our blog – and which has inspired lots of work is the lovely Pedralva:

‘Pedralva Flowers’ © Art by Alyson Sheldrake

Here it is in all its spring glory – it was a fabulous place to stay at and explore the west coast from:

Pedralva – the village that was brought back to life

There are so many traditional old villages to find and gain inspiration from – every time I see this painting it reminds me of when we toured round Messines and watched the house martins swooping down to feed their young in the eaves of the houses all around us:

‘The Old Village’ © Art by Alyson Sheldrake

Those of you interested in buying a property out here (although perhaps not the one in the painting above!) might find this post useful:

Where to buy a Property in the Algarve

The sea is an obvious place for me to find ideas to paint – and luckily I don’t have to walk too far to enjoy this fabulous breakwater and lighthouse, which has been the theme for several pieces:

‘On the rocks’ © Art by Alyson Sheldrake

Long-term readers of the blog might remember this view as it was the scene for some quite frightening storm images in the winter of 2014 –

Storm Surge hits the Algarve

which is hard to believe when you see how calm it is here in this painting:

‘Edge of the Sea’ © Art by Alyson Sheldrake

And it’s impossible to cover the Algarve and not have a painting of people enjoying the beach – this was a commission for a client who actually took the photograph himself of the girls jumping in and out of the waves at Carvoeiro:

‘Girls on the beach’ © Art by Alyson Sheldrake

It’s not all beaches though that inspire me – I have a real fascination and love of old trees too, so when we saw this old tree standing so majestically in a field in the Alentejo, I knew that I had to paint it in my modern ‘New Wave’ style:

‘Majestic’ © Art by Alyson Sheldrake

We have written about the beautiful unspoilt Alentejo region here for you:

Heading into the Alentejo Countryside

And for my final painting to share with you – a fabulous commission of a massive triptych painting inspired by the clients’ love of Armação de Pêra and depicting their favourite beach, sun-loungers and beach bar café:

‘Beach Life’ © Art by Alyson Sheldrake

You can discover our favourite beaches in this popular post:

Our Top 10 Beaches of the Algarve

So there you are – a quick tour of some of Alyson’s paintings and the places in the Algarve that have inspired her – and will continue to be the source of new paintings in the future too!

If you would like to see more of Alyson’s work – click the logo here to visit her website: