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AS if
predicting how it would affect its readers, the
coffee-table book on the selected artworks in watercolor
by painter Roland Santos, titled Nostalgia, brings back
lots of heartfelt memories for the artist himself.
When
Santos was still much younger and undecided on what
career path to take, he had two other passions besides
painting—chess and art books.
“My
father would bring me to our neighborhood barber shop
and I’d play with people 20 or 30 years older than me.
Many times, I’d beat them. I think if I didn’t become a
painter, I’d be a chess player,” he recalls with a
chuckle, citing that most painters he knows today are
also chess players.
In
school, he would spend his allowance on art books.
“I was
interested in art but the books were all imported and
very expensive. I’d buy only those that I could afford.
If not, I’d stay in the bookstore all day and read the
pricey titles. Even up to now, I have more books in my
room than clothes to wear,” says the Marikina City-born
and -bred visual artist.
He was
thankful he got engaged in those two other passions.
Playing chess and reading sensible books helped him
expand his imagination and visually create a master
plan, which were vital in his development as an artist.
Nowadays, when he views old houses, flowers and streams,
he can easily visualize his “next move.”
In
college, his parents more than wary about him taking up
fine arts, insisting that there’s no money in painting,
“gutom ang aabutin mo d’yan.” So he took up
civil engineering but earned extra money doing
portraiture, using charcoal.
Though
only a sideline, he was earning enough from portraiture
so he decided to leave school for good. Self-taught, he
learned to use pastel, oil and acrylic, depending on his
clients’ preference. At home, however, he found comfort
using watercolor.
“It
takes lots of discipline when it comes to watercolor.
Each move is controlled. You can’t afford to have
mistakes because you can’t erase them, unlike in
charcoal or oil. Like with most Asians, watercolor is
something close to my heart.”
Santos
followed his passion and never looked back. He has had
about six solo exhibitions, mostly done in watercolor,
starting in 1998 with Balik Tanaw (Looking
Through the Windows of the Past) and, most recently,
Nostalgia II. He is also instrumental in forming two
groups of Marikina-based artists, the Aquarellists and
Kulay Marikina.
Now, the
40-year-old
Santos
is a happy, fulfilled family man, with a daughter and
another due as he proudly intimated that his wife is on
the way.
Gathered
in the 178-page Nostalgia are Santos’s best works
over the past decade or so. Seven chapters group his
masterpieces into “Old Houses,” “Flaura,” “Landscape,”
“Fortune,” “Still Life,” “Abstract” and “Black & White.”
Says
Santos, “Since childhood, I’ve been collecting books on
art. Not even in my wildest dreams did it ever occur to
me that I’ll have one written about me and my works.”
Published by Jamayco Publishing House, the same firm
behind such award-winning titles as The Philippine
Coral Reefs, Encyclopedia of Philippine Art,
Volume 1, Fine Artists of the Philippines,
Myths and Legends of the
Philippines Volumes 1 and 2, Nostalgia was launched in late July. The guests of honor
included National Artist for Sculpture Napoleon Abueva,
National
Museum
curator Niki Legazpi, art patron Bessie Badilla, art
critic Cid Reyes and Asian Development Bank board of
directors member Richard Stanley.
Copies
are available in bookstores nationwide. |
