This project started life as a simple idea that I had made a note of in a sketchbook. A while later, a friend called Colin Nightingale who worked for a big London events company asked me if I knew anyone doing anything creative and slightly different with Capoeira. I told him about my idea and he encouraged me to pursue it. On 3rd July 2004 I gathered members of my Capoeira group together and enlisted the help of friends to do a 'dry-run' in order to see if my idea would work, especially in terms of the reactions of the participants and observers, but also to test the various materials (paint and surface) for use with the project. This initial test event exceeded all of my expectations, mainly with the participants and audience's upbeat energy that was produced by the making of the paintings. Since then all of the participants have constantly asked me when we can repeat the paintings. The event was documented by photography and video taken from above the painting, with action photography taken at ground level. You'll find a list of the participants below. This 'dry-run' was carried out in my backyard at home, which is approximately 9 metres x 3.5 metres. The surface in the yard is flagstone, so as we were using paper to paint on, I acquired a thin foamy material called neoprene (similar to wet-suit type material) to pin to the flagstones, so the paper didn't tear too easily. I chose acrylic paint and the surface that was painted on were sheets of paper about 3.2 metres by 3.2 metres. I invested in rollers and paint trays, usually used for household painting, which were used to spread paint onto the participant's hands and feet. I was happy with the way the paint worked, but for the next event I decided to exchange paper for canvas, because paper has the tendency to rip easily, as well as being too slippery in conjunction with the paint. Canvas being a material of a rougher, more fibrous quality has more friction, therefore allowing the players to move with greater ease, as well as being much stronger and heavier than paper. For the second event I also investigated the properties of poster paint as it has more 'elastic' and 'wetter' qualities than acrylic paint. The second Capoeira painting session took place on 12th February 2005 in the artist studio space of Henry Gundry-White in Brixton. This session was approached more carefully having learnt a lot of lessons from the previous 'dry-run.' This time a 3.65 metres x 3.65 metres hardboard sprung dance-floor was prepared as well as priming 3 canvases, measuring 2.54 metres x 2.54 metres in advance. This second event had all of the fun and energy of the first session, but worked much better through development of the materials and the technology. The poster paint on canvas were the right painting materials to use and we managed to fix a video camera directly over the canvas as well as a ground-level handheld video camera following the players' movements. The bird's-eye view video camera shot works particularly well, as you can see the painting being made by the Capoeira players and the movements are quite mesmerizing.