Your Hosts: Alan and Mary St. George
Alan and Mary St. George moved from the UK to Portugal in 1980 where they bought and restored a 17th century stable in the Serra de Sintra. Alan had worked in London as an architect for Building Design Partnership. He designed and supervised the building of a large bank in Lisbon where he decided to set up a practice. He retired from full time architecture in 1992 and began to focus on watercolours, sculpture and jewelry. His sculpture is based on mathematical theories of form and are made from metal, glass, mirror, wood and acrylic which became the inspiration for his jewelry.
Mary also worked as an architect until 1989 when she began teaching Art & Design at St. Julian’s International School in Lisbon. She was head of the art department from 1996-1999 and taught GCSE and IB (International Baccalaureate) Art. In 1999 she decided to take a break from full-time teaching to concentrate on watercolour, acrylic painting and etching. She now teaches part-time, runs art classes at the Casa, and is an IB Visual Arts examiner.