The Anthem Philatelist

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 Suba,   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 f...

Figurative Art in Cebu owes its sense of realism and classical ardor to the late Martino Abellana and those he mentored, particularly Romulo "Molong" Galicano . Since the eighties, Galicano has taught and encourage a band of Cebuano artists to excel in the academic techniques of figurative painting, and who has since emerged as the leading edge of a new generation of figure painters. They include Boy Briones , Pepe Villadolid , Carly Florido , Dodong Tallo , Jun Impas and Jonathan Galicano .    Bag-ong Hinan-aw (New Perspectives) is a brief survey of this new movement in Philippine art that combines academic technique with contemporary vision that combines tradition, innovation, and Cebuano creativity to a new degree of excellence.    Publio "Boy" Briones (b. 1949) originally graduated with a BS and MBA from UP before learning how to paint during landscape sorties by fellow Cebuanos in the provinces. He subsequently took watercolor workshops and sketching c...