Lupe Cunha paints from the material she sources with her camera. 'The viewfinder of the camera helps me perceive the world more clearly.’ The camera focuses my attention on facets of the world around me which, through the photo, I identify, relate  and then respond to. Once inspiration is absorbed then the painting takes over - working mostly abstract but usually from a natural  source'.  Lupe uses colour to express her perception of the subject. Like another Brazilian artist, Helio Oiticica, who made colour a dominant part of his fine art research, Lupe enjoys combining colours in layers to provoke resonance in her audience.  'In much of my work, through colour I aim at absorbing the viewer into the piece so that the viewing becomes a whole body experience'. 

In her site specific painting, Lupe references a particular whole body experience and the work is directly influenced  by her research the processes of Katherina Grosse with this bringing in issues of temporariness and working the readymade. Important in her painting are some of the destructive/constructive processes inspired by the work of artists like Callum Innes, Gerhard Richter and Anselm Keifer which through layering provides additional depth to the work which is expressive rather than formalist and rich in mark-making and expressive gestural marks. In addition, her choice of subject often raises issues of memory and identity linking back to her childhood and natural origins.