eltono: the french artist who painted the lopes' family home on cape verde

on cape verde, there is a village, são vicente; at the end of that village, there are mountains and just before you get to those mountains, there is a house that belongs to the lopes family. it was beneath one of their trees that eltono sat, watched colorful laundry billow on a line, and ate freshly caught moray eels with the family. he sketched the shapes that he saw and prepared a balanced composition for his architectural canvas — the lopes’ family home.

all images courtesy of eltono

eltono told designboom a little about his process and decision making for the project; before coming up with any decisions, he listened carefully to the environment. ‘when I saw the geometry of the building and the location — the last house in the village before the mountains — it was clear to me that this is where I wanted to paint… I chose the colors based on the surroundings and tried my best to find a balance between the already existing landscape and the task at hand.’

‘integrating the painting with the environment and architecture is a very important part of all of my pieces,’ says eltono. the composition was designed using objects and geometric elements he discovered around the home and landscape. every abstract gesture tells a different story of the home on cape verde.