A Brazilian painter is making an art out of smoking pot.    

At his studio in Rio de Janeiro on Monday, Fernando de la Rocque (pronounced hockey) took a deep drag on a marijuana joint and blew onto a stencil overlaying paper.

After several puffs an image began to appear – a golden-hued version of ”Ecstasy of Saint Teresa” by Italian sculptor Giovanni Lorenzo.

Smoking marijuana is illegal in Brazil, but some of Rocque’s pot-stained prints are selling for $2,500 each. A show featuring the work opened last week at an alternative gallery in Rio’s stylish Ipanema neighborhood.

The 32-year-old Rocque says he stumbled on his toking technique in 2009.

It takes him a week to do a single print – blowing about five joints of smoke onto a paper daily. -Photos and text by AP

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