Ana Maria Sobral has her studio by the calm waters of the Óbidos Lagoon. 

Ana Sobral was born on 19 March 1957 in Pemba, Mozambique. She came to Portugal in 1977 and settled in Foz do Arelho in 1980. In 1987 she took the “Wheel Pottery” course at Cencal and took part in various ceramics workshops. Later (2000) she took a diploma in “Plastic Arts/Culture” at ESAD. 

The ceramicist works essentially with stoneware paste, which she decorates with graphics and paints with engobes and oxides and, eventually, glazes. It can be said that the artist manages to combine two aspects in her work: the commercial and the artistic. She has been providing professional training and activities for children since 1989. 

When we enter her studio, we are transported to another world, where imagination, beauty and sensitivity reign supreme. On long tables rest the pieces that make up a sea-themed panel. The elements that make it up, some reproducing sea animals, fit together like a huge jigsaw puzzle. Some relief pieces and the harmonious colours give the panel an undulating movement reminiscent of ocean waves. 

There, too, bulging decorative pieces and mysterious female figures look at us seductively. And the cats? Just watching, they wait for us, wishing us a party. 

Ana Sobral has been taking part in the Aveiro Ceramics Biennial since 1997, with pieces of Christmas and sacred art. She has taken part in the International Ceramics Days (2012) in Manises, Spain and also in Ceramics Symposiums: Caldas da Rainha (2010), Tunisia (2018) and Turkey (2019).  

In 2004 she won an award at the Iberian Pottery and Clay Festival in Salvatierra de los Barros (Spain) and in 2006 at the “Festival of the Arts of Fire” in Nazaré. 

Ana Sobral sells her pieces in her studio, in the Gazeta das Caldas, in Lisbon, Porto, Guimarães and Nazaré.