António Mendes was born on 11/01/1963 in Angola. He came to Portugal in 1975, living in Lisbon. A sports coach until 2012, he is currently coordinating a team. Caught up in the crisis that swept the world in those years, he was one of those who left in search of a better future, spending a year in France. He then went to Northern Ireland, but not even the mysterious Emerald Isle saved him. He returns to Portugal and, for family reasons, arrives in Caldas da Rainha. A few months later, he embraced a new challenge and enrolled at CENCAL, where he attended the Ceramics Initiation and Ceramic Moulds courses. Challenge after challenge, it was also through CENCAL that he attended the Ceramic Modeling Technician course in Alcobaça for a year. He did an internship at FFBP (Bordalo Pinheiro Faience Factory, Caldas da Rainha). It was then that António Pacheco invited him to do a professional internship at his ArtsFactory studio. António Mendes accepted and, at the same time, he set up an atelier in his home and began developing unique, utilitarian and decorative pieces, mainly tableware. He produces bowls, vases, tableboards, plates… Many of his pieces have a peculiarity: they contain a mark of nature, a mark that can be made with a small piece of wood caught in the pond, or the stamping of a slender leaf in relief, which we are tempted to grasp. The artist mainly uses stoneware and opts for earth colors in his glazes. He has pieces made with two pastes, in which he alternates colors depending on the piece, but always in neutral tones. By using this technique, the pieces stand out for their shape, which is not always rectilinear, for their simplicity, or for their naturalistic decorations. At the moment, António Mendes has his pieces on sale in stores in Coimbra, Caldas da Rainha and Comporta (in the summer). He also sells directly.