Sunday, April 3, 2011

Isabela at Cristina : A painting of two sisters





On my way to work one Monday morning around February, I found a piece of plywood by the side of the road, abandoned and spotless. I picked it up and brought it home, where it lay ignored for some time, since I was still busy working on other projects. However, the panel was never far away from my mind, and I was always playing around with concepts in my head on what I would paint for my first "official" painting. I started work on the panel first week of March and put down the final brushstroke March 31st.
The painting is deeply personal and symbolic for me. While the two women in the painting are not really what my two sisters Isabela and Cristina look like in real life, the other elements within the painting are from when I was growing up in the sleepy town of Albay. We had a garden, where roses grew wild and snails roamed at their own leisurely pace. For a time, we kept a barn owl as a pet, till it bit my finger and we had to set it free. The volcanoes in the background represent the magnificent Mt. Mayon, and while in reality, there is only one volcano, in my painting I kept two for the theme of sisterhood and duality.

V is for Vicious



the last of the three-part series. acrylic on wood. last deck before I embark on something I havent attempted before. :) http://www.twitter.com/prettymonkey_26

V is for Vanity



This is the 2nd skateboard deck I’ve done for a three-part series wherein I explore a new style of painting. I’ve done skateboard decks before, and in fact it is my favorite surface to work on. However, this series looks quite different from my previous work, and it shows in the details; real objects that I have tried to depict this time around, as opposed to using graphical elements as filler. It was fun doing this series, I am almost sad to see the third and last deck finished. It has been personally fulfilling to finally achieve the depth and realism that I felt was lacking in my previous works, and I am keen to further develop this style on future paintings.