"I'm no artist, I'm a ceramist". The phrase is assertive, but does not reflect the reality. Joaquim Pombal is an artist and ceramist and is more. He is a perpetuator of one of the oldest Portuguese traditions, the tile. More: he's a spreader of this art and takes it, painted, around the world.
"Right now I'm doing things for the top hotels in Sweden, in Miami, in Macau, and will initiate a panel to Dubai. The Arabs ordering totally different things, but they want the technique of Portuguese tile, which is better paid" .
Joaquim Pombal can be proud of. It works on tiles for 30 years. In other times he had employees, now he has the help of his wife, Anabela Correia.
The tile name has nothing to do with the color blue. But the history of Portuguese tile yes. The Chinese porcelain, from the Ming Dynasty period, and the Delft tiles (from the Netherlands), they gave their contribution. By the time of the Discoveries, the Portuguese imported both products, which were painted blue on white. Of them were filled with houses and palaces and, from the XVIII century, the well-known traditional Portuguese tiles won life with the same color. One reason for that is blue is the fact that tone always stay well when cooked at high temperatures.
Text by Filomena Abreu (Jornal de Notícias Newspaper)
Joaquim Pombal Atelier, Tiles for the World
Leça do Balio, Portugal
© 2015 Igor Martins (Global Imagens Agency)