The Anthem Philatelist

   Once upon a time... an old donkey was ill- treated by his master. Tired of such unkindness, he decided to run away, and when he heard that Bremen was looking for singers with the town band, he decided that someone with a fine braying voice like his might be accepted. As he went along the road, the donkey met a skinny dog , covered with sores. “Come with me. If you have a good bark, you’ll find a job with the band too. Just wait and see!”   A little later, a stray cat , no longer able to catch mice, joined them and the trio trotted hopefully on towards the town. As they passed a farmyard, they stopped to admire an elderly rooster who, with outstretched wings, was crowing to the skies. The donkey, the dog, the cat and the rooster “You sing well,” they told him. “What are you so happy about?”   “Happy?” muttered the rooster with tears in his eyes. “They want to put me in the pot and make broth of me. I’m singing as hard as I can today...

Moving Forward, Watercolor on Paper, 12"x16", 2001   Entering the formal art scene with an initial lack of natural drawing confidence, Pepito relied on relentless observation and continuous sketching to hone his technique . Martino Abellana famously encouraged his students to embrace whatever medium was accessible—whether ink, charcoal, pencil, or watercolor . Watercolor, known for its unforgiving transparency and rapid drying time, forced Pepito to develop a precise yet spontaneous hand.  Unlike the heavy layers of his later acrylic and oil canvases, his early watercolors capture the transient, ambient light characteristic of impressionism. These pieces demonstrated a nuanced understanding of tonal values. By leaning on the values and structural shapes of his subjects, Pepito bypassed the limitations of his color blindness. This phase proved that his early command of tone, shadow, and light was robust enough to deliver striking visual narratives without relying on standard ...