How do you bottle the soul of a place? How do you translate into fragrance the heat of an
afternoon in Salvador, the sound of a berimbau, the vibrant colors of a street festival?
When a prestigious European perfume house set out to capture the essence of Brazil, it
found its answer not in a lab, but on the canvases of Tania Azevedo.
Tania’s Naïve art is anything but “naïve” — it’s essentialist. Rather than clinging to detail,
she distills the pulse of everyday life in Bahia down to its purest form. Her palette is not
just bright; it’s an emotional tuning fork, aligning the viewer with the joy and celebration
that form the soul of her homeland. Her paintings don’t just show Bahia — they breathe
its atmosphere.
The invitation for her work to adorn the packaging of a celebrated European perfume
brand is more than an achievement; it’s a symbolic milestone, a sophisticated act of
curatorship. It’s international recognition of the sensory power of her art. The brand didn’t
just purchase an image — they “bottled” an atmosphere. They saw that Tania’s painting
was already, in its own right, a perfume: a visual fragrance that evokes memory, warmth,
and an unmistakable sense of belonging.
And here lies the magic — while her art is deeply rooted in Bahia, it resonates universally.
Joy, community, the celebration of life — these are “scents” that transcend borders. This
collaboration is proof that the alma baiana she paints is understood and desired
worldwide, that ineffable borogodó translated into a language everyone can feel.
The Scent of Color
Tania Azevedo