Cebuano Artists Painting Collection- Pedro D. Villadolid

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Pedro D. Villadolid, Forest, 1976, Oil on masonite 36" x 60", Avanzado family collection

At 3x5 feet, this 1976 painting by little known painter from Bantayan Island, Cebu, Pedro Villadolid is the biggest known work of the artist to date.  I grew up looking at this painting everyday. This commissioned landscape art piece adorned our main living room,  another beautiful seascape version hung in my parents bedroom, a third piece - a still life - could be found in our dining room, and a fourth - a flower in a vase in front of the bar.

Not much is known about this Cebuano painter who had the exceptional God-given talent for the arts but only started painting later in life.  His son Jose "Pepe" Villadolid, also a notable painter in Cebu recalls, "he didn't start painting seriously until my younger brother Balsicas got sick".  Balsicas was the most talented among the Villadolid painters that included my uncle Diosdado "Diovil", my father Pedro and myself, Pepe divulged. 

Pedro Desamparado Villadolid

Pedro   (6 October 1916 - 7 August 1980) was a bodegero (warehouse man) and when not working, he would peddle Balsicas' paintings in Mandaue and Consolacion. Just like most artists from the smaller islands in our country, Pedro was unschooled and self-taught. His paintings were from actual subjects with added elements from his vivid imagination. "He paints with apparent disregard for proportion or natural coloration.  His subjects architecture were free, loose with bright gay colored patterns. His substitution of lively ideograms for natural appearances makes him an intense hunter for the modern idiom. Villadolid is not several molds removed from Austria, Belleza or Antonio", wrote Manuel D. Duldulao in his 1982 book, A Century of Realism in Philippine Art. 

"Pedro Villadolid's state of mind was connected to the innocence and touching simplicity of Miro, Gauguin and even Picasso himself, who declared at one time that the more mature he got, the more he painted like a child", he added.

 

Pedro D. Villadolid  Pencil Sketch by his son Jose
 


Balsicas B. Villadolid

Balsicas was Jose's younger brother. "My uncle Diosdado, who taught me the rudiments of painting, used to say that in a few years Balsicas will be better than me and my father", Jose said. Then one day, when Diosdado saw one of Balsicas' work - a seascape - he gasped and declared, "hands down, he is now the best amongst us!"

Balsicas however, was not able to continue painting for long because he became sickly at a young age and sadly died at age 42. But in his few years of painting, he had considerable output because he had the noteworthy talent to paint several paintings simultaneously and would  do so incessantly to the point of lunacy; he was mentally disturbed and would not even eat for days just to paint.

Pepe added that he only knew a handful of people who personally owned Balsicas' paintings. Almost all his art works were sold to a rich Chinese businessman in Cebu. "At that time, our family desperately needed money for my brother's recurrent medical expenses, and the Chinese collector was kind enough to lend us initially, then eventually bought all Basilcas' available paintings when it was offered to him". He also acquired several paintings of Diosdado. This explains the scarcity of their works. This collector has long died and his widow is taking care of this precious collection.

"One of the well known collectors  of Balsicas' work was Jaime Laya," Central Bank Governor of the Philippines from 1981 to 1984, he added.

Now it can be told that Pedro Villadolid was an excellent self taught painter who sold his pieces mainly in Mandaue and Consolacion. This was where my parents met him and commissioned him to create paintings for our house back in 1975. 


Jose "Pepe" B.  Villadolid

With a well paying job as an advertising contractor for the Coca Cola Bottling Company and San Miguel Corporation for 30 years, Jose "Pepe" Villadolid only began to paint seriously in the late 80's, joining  painting sorties  with his fellow Cebuano artists to the provincial countryside where he developed his love for landscapes and seascapes. 

After meeting Romulo "Mulong" Galicano who gave him a lot of pointers in 1991, he decided to become a dedicated  painter and had since participated in various local, national and international shows. He had group and one man shows in Cebu City Museum, New York, San Diego and several times at the SM Art Center. In 1996, He won the Grand Prize for the Martino Abellana Painting Competition.

In 2010, his works, together with now prominent artists who were once students of Romulo Galicano like Florentino "Jun" Impas, Carlos "Carly" Florido, Jonathan Galicano, Publio "Boy" Briones and Facundo "Dodong" Tallo Jr. - were featured in Bag-ong Hinan-aw (New Perspective), a Contemporary Cebuano Figurative Painting Exhibit. 

Now at 77 years of age, he continues to paint and currently owns and manages a small gallery in Talisay City, Cebu.

Two of Pedro Villadolids works were featured in the book A Century of Realism in Philippine Art by Manuel D. Duldulao.

 


Pedro D. Villadolid, Farm Scene 1953, Oil in masonite, 23 x 31, p.218, A Century of Realism in Philippine Art 1982, Mr. and Mrs. Reynaldo R. Evangelista Collection  


Pedro D. Villadolid, Vinta, 1962, Oil in masonite, 23 x 45, p. 227, A Century of Realism in Philippine Art, Mr and Mrs. K. E. Soon Collection


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