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PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER – LIFESTYLE
December 1, 2003
Art that makes life bearable
By Constantino C. Tejero
THE STILL life can be compared to two other art forms. Life the etude, it can be an exercise to practice some points in technique, in developing and exploring tone, structure, rhythm, nuance.
Like the haiku, it records the transitoriness of life, the impermanence of relationships, the fragility of things, mortality, intimate feelings, perishables.
Through the centuries this painting genre has been largely dismissed as too pretty, too decorative, or not complex enough to be considered high art. How wrong-headed an appraisal!
The still life can actually stand on its own artistic merit. It can either be light or heavy, whimsical or grave, depending on how an artist uses it. It may be delicate but it can be meaning-laden, indeed, like the sonnet, or the haiku for that matter.
A skillful as well as thoughtful use of the still life is displayed by Rona Buenaseda-Chua in her eponymous exhibit, her first solo show, until December 7 in The Crucible Gallery at the Artwalk, 4/L, Bldg. A, SM Megamall.
Here are 37 delectable pieces, 27 in watercolor on paper—depicting flowers and comestibles: sugpo, alimasag, fish and shellfish, fruits and vegetables, roses, daisies, lilies. Many of them are surprisingly beautiful, not only for their formal composition and colorism but also for their choice of subjects.
Among the loveliest: “Daing na Bangus,” “Inukit sa Kahoy,” “Yellow Lilies,” Still Life” 1, “Fruits with Vase,” “Fruits on Scarf,” “Alimango,” “Seafood with Veggies” 2, “Hipon sa Dahon.”
The color application is largely bold and concentrated, in primary and secondary colors, yet Buenaseda-Chua can be capable of subtle shading. All her pieces are in bright happy hues.
“I don’t want to use black, unless for accent,” says the artist. “I want images and color na nakakagaan ng loob at modo, nakakawala ng problema.”
And it’s not just still life she’s capable of, either. She has also done Mother and Child, landscape, a waterfall series.
She has worked in mixed media, using acrylic, rope, lace (for impression on acrylic). At one time she worked in the cubist style, in monochrome of light green blue or pink.
She used to do abstraction in acrylic, but stopped when she got married.
“Abstract work must be big,” she says. “Kailangan ng malaking space. When I started a family, lumiit na’ng space. Sometimes I had to do my painting on bed.”
An Assumption Convent alumna from grade school through high school, she took up Fine Arts, major in Art Education, at College of the Holy Spirit. She belongs to the Tuesday Group of artists, and teaches in her own art studio in Greenhills and Makati.
Among her favorite artists are Joya, Manansala, Anita Magsaysay-Ho, Rembrandt, Cézanne. She also loves graphic artist Erte, whose work she describes as “malinis, makikita mo bawa’t line, whimsical pero iba ang dating.”
She also acknowledges as a great influence her teacher in Chinese painting, Hau Chiok, whose work has inspired the exquisite Orientalism in her own work.
“The purpose of my art is to make the world a better place to live in,” she says.
This personal testament she puts to further practice by giving part of the proceeds of this exhibit part of the proceeds of this exhibit to the Studium Theologiae Foundation, which helps in the education of diocesan seminarians.
Some artists think art is for self-expression, while others use it to record, interpret or analyze the world and the human condition. The lowlifes make it serve their self-aggrandizement or delusion of immortality.
To make life bearable—isn’t that a valid reason?
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