CHANDOR: Chandor is a peaceful village situated in the Salcete taluka. It lies in the south of Goa, along the Southern bank of the River Zuari and the Western bank of the River Kushavati. As one enters Chandor, one is awestruck by the sight of the magnificent Igreja de Nossa Senhora de Belém, standing tall amidst the market area.
On walking for a few minutes along the right side of the church, one may spot a small, quaint newspaper outlet, just beside the road. On getting closer to this little cozy outlet, you will notice a man with a smiling face brandishing his paintbrush and engrossed in art – meet Eleuterio Antão.
Antão was born in Khursa Bhatt, Kavori, Chandor. He studied at the Saint Joseph Educational Institute, where he actually began discovering his aptitude for painting and sketching somewhere around 1979. In 1982, he set up his small venture of painting sculptures and church altar cloths in Margão, after which he moved to his village to set up his little workshop just beside the Chandor Church, in 1983. Here, he, till date, passionately undertakes sculpture painting, vehicle number plate painting, sign board painting, and Catholic altar cloth painting.
In 2011, Eleuterio moved to the UK for work, where he crafted wedding décor. He returned to Goa in 2021 and got back to his passion of painting. In addition to the services mentioned above, Eleuterio also paints metal shutters using a conventional paintbrush and modern spray-painting techniques.
“When I was young, I would do masonry work in times when I didn’t have painting orders,” adds Eleuterio . One of the biggest difficulties he faces as a painter is safeguarding his works from pests and rodents, he states. When asked for how many hours in a day he works, he says, “I generally start work early in the morning at around 6.30 am and continue until 12.45 pm”. “If I am exhausted during work, I take a long stroll around to relax my mind and get back to work again,” he adds.
Further, he mentions that if the workload is more, he continues with work even in the evening half of the day. Eleuterio mentions that as and when people come to buy newspapers, it actually keeps him alert and on his toes.
“If the statues I work on have missing parts, I complete them using epoxy,” says the passionate young man.
Eleuterio mentions that he hardly receives any orders from people of his village, but most of his clients are from distant places like Sanguem and Benaulim. He works not only on religious sculpture but also on secular pieces. “I paint on various media like wood, fibre, metal, cloth, plaster, and so on using paints like oil, acrylic emulsions, and fabric paints among others,” says Eleuterio.
“I do them in both matte and glossy finishes depending on what the client asks for,” he mentioned. “Generally, I take about one to five days to complete a painting job for a statue of about two feet tall, but the time required may go on up to even a few months based on the size and intricacy of the piece I’m working on,” explains Eleuterio.
He mentions that he has currently stopped taking new orders for the ongoing season so that he would be in a position to dedicate more time to completing the works he has already taken up.
“I enjoy the work I do and shall continue doing what I do in the years ahead!” exclaims Eleuterio with a smile on his face.
