Attended a nude sketching session yesterday at the Las Islas Art Gallery
in Intramuros, Manila. It was primarily for the students of the Fine Arts
department of FEATI University headed by Janice Young. They had a
model who could inspire the 19th century french painters. Renoir would
be delighted to paint her. Anyway, the creative energy was average not
overly excited. There were a few good sketches produced.

This coming 16th of March there is Art in the Park art show in Salcedo
Park in Makati. The receipts for the reasonably priced artworks will
partially go to charity, about 20% of it, 30% to the managing organiztion
and 50% to the artists Not too shabby, I'd say. There'll be fun and plenty
of food.

There is a growing generation of new artists who need to be trained like their
counterpart across the ocean. This i believe is the one thing that's lacking in the
creative mix. However, there is another discussion among artists who feel there is
also a need to educate the art consumers in terms of differentiating decorative art
from fine art.

The art consumers in a way sort of dictate what art to produce, that may be
alright assuming they know what is "art".  Anyway art properly rests upon the
shoulders of the artists as it is with medicine to the doctors and lawyering to the
lawyers. There are exceptions i'm sure but we are talking in general terms.

How does one educate the consumers but to insist to produce what the artists
feel like producing and not to succumb to the invitation of money or the so
called "wallet or check book art". Another way is to hold symposia or whatever
forums to get them to understand art as fine artists were taught to understand.

The Tamawan artists had their show at the Ayala musem two weeks ago.
It had an environmental message about how the forests and trees are treated
by capitalists. The artworks are exquisetely rendered from the eyes of the
local Benguet artists.

If you missed it, there'll be another time next year for another
show.

that's all for now folks!

keep in touch.

hello fellow artists,

how are your creative days going?
took a few days off blogging. Needed
to work on my paintings.

I'm sure most of you had been busy
yourselves dipping brushes with colors
you just discovered.

The persisting gossip in the art circles
seems to be the desire to have an NGO
run by educated art practioners and well
versed with the current practices of the
western museums  whose interests would be to
focus on establishing a national museum comparable
to that of San Francisco's Legion of Honor or
other western museums.
Building wise we need to have a sound proof
and well air conditioned structure to preserve
old paintings from any deterioration caused by
humidity and other elements. Also this way
the building becomes more conducive for art
lovers to better appreciate art.

Art collection doesn't have to be that extensive
but at least it would be a secured and comfortable
place to house the cultural artworks and heritage
of a few centuries. The smithsonian institution at
one point i understand made an attempt to
return Gregorio del Pilar's sabre. This item would
an interesting exhibit for the museum. The art NGO
would have the responsibility of recovering such artifacts .


I'm pretty sure a lot of us would be very happy to see this
happen.

readers of this blog that i started last night come from USA(6), Germany(1),Korea(1)
and Philippines (60).

How are you guys doing?
You're all artists i suppose.

Anyway, it's about 3pm  wed manila time.

Not much is happening.

A certain modus vivendi operates for
artists and galleries  in Manila. I noticed
that in almost every art exhibit there is
a sponsor/s who is either an institution or a person
with means. Without the sponsor
the art exhibit may not happen.

The reason being the opening night reception,
invitations, publicity and other expenses are beyond
the financial reach of the artist having drained
his lean wallet of the cost of frames and
other supplies and the sponsor
comes in to take care of this issue. In exchange,
the artist offers an artwork as a gesture of gratitude.


It seems to be working and spins the wheel of
the local art culture. The art nights or art
exhibits usually with receptions starting at 6pm
is full of fun, artists and their models mingle
with art patrons and vice versa. It's a reason
for the affluent to get together again when
their out of alibis to invite one another. For
some of the artists it's time to have a bit of
spirits a little different from the turpentine.

I'm not particularly sure if sponsors get tired of
doing this particularly if it's a so-so kind of art show.
There are special ones that the sponsor may take
pride, however. Shows that are of substance perhaps the artist
is on his last leg, or the art theme is compelling enough for
the press to spend overtime money for the reporters and
photographers to cover the event. In this scenario
everyone is happy from the sponsor to the guests, caterer and
waiters to the artists and the influx and exodus of
drop ins. Food and booze is flowing and the ladies
look more beautiful in their fancy night gowns. The sounds of
laughters, wine glasses and bottles and kitchen
wares is so distinct one knows there is a party of a
certain breed of people...bohemians and their patrons.

The local art scene reception is not any different
from those across the ocean. The reception usually lasts till
the last man standing has run out of corny jokes and is sipping
the last drop of napa cabernet. Some ladies gowns upon
closer inspection are stained with these red drips caused by
such gentlemen carelessly tilting their wine glasses obviously
with double visions as they walk around with shaky legs.
They're lucky the reception is not in the west coast.

time to take a break.
catch you guys later.

jt

anybody is welcome to blog in their art
experiences .

That's greaat coffee i just had with crepe and meditarranean stuffing for
breakfast. But didn't have yogurt.

Anyway, it seems to me that we have an overabundance
of artists but we are definitely, according to some in the art circles
are undersupplied with artists who know what they're doing.

In time perhaps, new breed of well trained and learned artists will
spring . We definitely need art schools with training curricula focused
on the actual practice of painting. Remember  Ecole d artes in Paris, Arts
Students League in New York which produced great French and American
painters. I mean compare their paintings with ours and ....you're right
there's no comparison and perhaps it's not fair to do so.. Well what's
all the fuss about creating paintings then? I think these guys across the
ocean are well way ahead in terms of techniques and materials. Do we have
ambitions of catching up or raising our level of standards? As a group
the filipino artist is behind. A lot of individual artists are either in self denial
or aren't aware of what is going on across the oceans. Few can really be counted.
But for those who have travelled and had the good fortune of going to the art
museums and/or studying in the fine arts schools of Europe and America the
case is rested.

The regular art institutions in the universities are mostly theoretically
oriented. The other part of practice is minimally exercised. Common sense
tells me that products of these kind of training are half baked. There maybe
exceptions but we're not talking about exceptions.

The Academy of Art in San Francisco trains artists how to paint providing
necessary 6 hour workshops everyday for the student to practice in addition
to the regular  6 hour painting classes. Do we have anything like this to train
the new breed of artists?

Doesn't anyone think it's high time to get busy?
Are we in limbo or in primitive pre computer age.
Luna, Hidalgo, Amorsolo were not the exceptions.
They were able to produce exceptional artworks because
of their training and exposure to art environments across
the oceans.

Gotta take a break fellow artists. Somehow, somewhere
we'll manage to get over the hill.

later.

jt

I have a friend who thinks that our art in the visual arena
i.e. painting needs more improvement in terms of expression
and rendering to at least approximate the quality of artworks
produced by Luna / Amorsolo and a few more well trained
and seasoned artists with fine art training in other countries.

This is borne out of his observation of the paintings produced by
contemporary artists who seem to have a lack of understanding of
the medium. Thereby, when compared with the works from Europe,
America or even other  asian countries a great difference in terms
 of finish, materials used and conceptualization are keenly obvious.

Assuming there is a modicum of truth to this observation.
Would asking the following questions satisfactorily improve our
painters quality of work.
Is it because we don't have the means to buy good painting
supplies? Or is it because of lack of training, lack of devotion
and the inability to put in more hours? Or is it because
we lack qualified art/painting teachers? Or is it because the
filipino artist as a breed is still carrying the yoke of "puede na iyan"
attitude even when he honestly knows it is a mediocre kind
of job. Or is it all of the above.
If ever this is true, i'm sure there are a few filipino artists/painters
who are dying hard to get over the challenging hurdles in order
to not compromise their art to mediocrity. I've met quite a few of these
seasoned artists. But for the emerging ones it might help to keep in
mind that the art world is not easy and making artworks with the
"puede na iyan" attitude doesn't make life any easier.

Anyway, you know the saying talking the walk is different
from walking the walk.

catch you fellow artists next time..,

juan tamad