Lens-Artists Challenge #355: Looking Back to Challenge #42

July 05, 2025

Lens-Artists Challenge #355: Looking Back to Challenge #42 – Creativity (Revisited)

The Lens-Artists Challenge is taking a break this week, next week it'll be back with a guest post from SH, but I thought it would be an idea to share this little gem of Creativity that probably only a handful of people in the whole of Portugal are aware of.

In front of our local Lidl supermarket in Oliveira do Bairro is a small derelict structure. I've photographed this many times over the years, and I never tire of it. A few years ago the vegetation that grows around the building was cut back, and I went exploring. I was startled to find the most beautiful mural on one wall. This wasn't a typical street art painted mural, but azulejos, hand painted tiles, and it depicted a beautiful undersea vista. Traditionally, tiles were decorated with a simple colour palate dominated by blues and whites, but in the twentieth century azulejos became more ornate and were used in advertising hoardings and murals. In the 1970s and 80s machine patterned tiles appeared, and houses began to be adorned with a variety of geometric shapes. (I really must gave another wander around the 'old town' in Aveiro, there are some great examples there.)

After my original foray into the building, back in 2021, the vegetation was allowed to grow back and the structure became inaccessible again, but in the past couple of weeks a lot of the vegetation around Lidl has been cut back, including around the derelict structure. As I was in Oliveira, I took the opportunity to see if I could access the building, and after a bit of clambering (and narrowly missing a poor dead cat in the undergrowth), I entered the derelict building and discovered the mural was as lovely as I remembered.

This time, I took some close-up images of the mural, or should it really be described as a mosaic, showing more details of the painted tiles. They really are splendid, and the close ups reveal the brush strokes and the effort that was put into the design. For someone this was a real labour of love. The shapes of the eyes of the fish, and individual fish, still retain their colour, and although there is some water damage, unsurprisingly since the building, and the mural, has been open to the elements for years, the mural is still an idyllic underwater vista.

Judging by the clearing up around the Lidl supermarket, it's possible that after some twenty years that development might be taking place. The scrubland is one of my favourite places to go to test new cameras, and although I would miss the concrete pipes that have graced many a post, I would miss this building, and this irreplaceable mural, even more. I had better record its intricate detail while I can.

This was for Leya's first 'Looking Back' Challenge, Creativity. (https://lagottocattleya.com/2025/06/28/lens-artists-challenge-355-looking-back-to-42-creativity/) Themes for the Lens-Artists Challenge are posted each Saturday at 12:00 noon EST (which is 4pm, GMT) and anyone who wants to take part can post their images during the week. If you want to know more about the Challenge, details can be found here (https://photobyjohnbo.com/about-lens-artists/), and entries can be found on the WordPress reader using the tag 'Lens-Artists'.

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