Art: Azulejos & Orlando de Noronha

Take a fistful of clay. Add water. Make a lump-free dough. Spread it on a tray and cut into required size. When dry, fire in the kiln. Glaze it with powdered glass mixed with water. Keep the back groovy so that it adheres easily to the wall. Now, get arty. Outline the drawing on a tracing paper, then transfer it to the surface of the tile by sprinkling the perforations with powdered charcoal. Pick a brush and paint the tile. Or, draw straight on the tile and paint. Red. Green. Yellow. For the retro look, use blue.Fire the tile again at 1,050 degrees Celsius to fuse the glaze and set the painting. Soak it in water. Lo! The arty azulejos are ready.

So, azulejos are painted ceramic tiles? No. They are hand painted. Each one created over hours. One at a time. In India, they are made only in Goa. The art of painting on ceramic tiles originated in 15th-century Portugal and soon everyone took fancy to it. The king, the plebeian. The church, the mansion. Railways stations and subways. Azulejos depicting historic events, places of worship, culture and habitat of the people became everyone’s favourite walldecor. When the Portuguese came to India, they brought along not only chillies and pineapples, but also azulejos. Interestingly, during the Portuguese reign, there were no Goan azulejo artists; azulejos were imported from Portugal. The Portuguese came with the azulejos, the Portuguese went back with azulejos. Their departure almost killed the art - and market - of hand painted tiles in India. 

Then, the azulejos returned to Goa. Call it quirk of fate. Or absent-minded coincidence. The art arrived back in India with a Goan who on his way home from Lisbonhad packed azulejos in his bags. His name: Orlando de Noronha. A man with a 5-year degree in commercial art from Goa Art College whose love for art matches his love for music. He speaks Portuguese at home and plays the violin and mandolin for his band Versatyle. His eagerness to learn the Portuguese guitar took him to Lisbon. In 1998, when he returned to Goa after a two-year Lisbon stint, he packed not musical notes but ceramic tiles in his bags. That excess baggage changed Orlando’s fate and with him, the fate of Goan azulejos. 

In Panjim, I was looking for Orlando’s atelier. In the early morning flurry, I noticed a wall. A tiled wall with a girl peeping from a balcony and a man playing a violin. Colours vibrant and the drawing impeccable. A wrought-iron lamppost added to the yesteryear setting.I guessed this is where Orlando de Noronha lives. A door creaked open and I stepped into a house of tiles. By the foot of the staircase is the Mario Miranda balcony, Orlando’s tribute to Goa’s iconic cartoonist. The walls are cluttered with azulejos with Mario Miranda’s famous cartoons that Orlando has been replicating on tiles for more than a decade. Besides doing tile mementoes of his designs, Orlando also makes huge wall murals and has recently taken to making personalised azulejo crockery. In the atelier above, there are countless hand painted tiles. Small. Big. Gigantic. Each depicting a slice of Goan heritage.

For the Goan who often plays the guitar for Fado renditions, it has been a long journey. In the beginning, Orlando had a furnace that could only hold 30 tiles at one go; today, he - and his team - make nearly 10,000 tiles a month. His studio has countless single-tiled designs but Orlando still remembers the 3,600-tile mural that he made for Goa Tourism. It took three months and loads of patience. It is almost 18 years since Orlando returned from Lisbon with a bag full of ceramic tiles. Years have gone by, Orlando still speaks Portuguese at home. He still plays the mandolin and the violin. He still loves the Mario Miranda series of azulejos. 

When Orlando first took to making azulejos, there were nary a taker. Time changed that. Azulejos are now everywhere in Goa. Artists have embraced the art and buyers/patrons are loosening their pursestrings. Walk around Goa and azulejos seem a part of local landscape. In railways stations and shops. In homes and hotels. As murals and nameplates. As wall decor and sidewalks. As style and as statement. Each azulejo tells a story. A Goan story.