Original Naif Painting of a Brazilian Beach Town, "Itaunas II"

Francisca "Chica" Paula Pompeu de Camargo was born on February 4, 1953. She first started studying in 1977 with Francisco Silva Junior, who taught her a wide variety of techniques, from designing to oil paints. Always a keen painter, when she was a student at the School of Fine Arts she decided to specialize in watercolors.

Chica has exhibited her work throughout Brazil, and has received awards in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais. In 1994 she moved cities and studied with Alberto Kaplan, developing a contemporary watercolor style. In 1999 she moved yet again and continued to paint in her own studio.

"I loved the time I spent in Espirito Santo. It was good for me and it proved to be an endless source of inspiration for my paintings," Chica recalls. "The paintings I have selected for Novica bear much of what inspired me during my time there. When I lived in the state of Vitória, I would always go to Itaunas, an enchanted place with a small fishing village in constant morphological change due to the sand dunes, which vary according to climate."

In 2002 she moved to Niteroi, yet her work remains in galleries across Brazil including Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Vitória.