My mother passed away when I was 9 years old; three years later, my father followed her. At 12, therefore, I became an orphan and stayed with my stepmother. It was around that period that I dreamed of becoming a painter.
In 1948, I was invited to teach drawing at the Zamboanga Chinese High School. I had started practicing on-the-spot landscape painting every Sunday in Pasonanca Park and also learning to play the violin. I was also writing essays that were published in Chinese newspapers in Manila. Although I was teaching and writing, I still could not leave my dream of becoming a painter.
In 1954, I resigned from teaching and went to Manila to study Fine Arts and fulfill my dream. I borrowed P250 from a close friend of my stepmother and, together with four companions, went to the University of Santo Tomas School of Fine Arts.
My companions had been studying there for two years and they enrolled in the Life Painting subject for the third year. I had wanted to join them in class, but I had to secure first a special permission from the dean, professor Victorio Edades.
When he learned that I was a working student and had six years of experience teaching High School Drawing, and that I was enrolling at UST not merely to get a diploma but to really study art, he signed my permit.
It was a dream come true for me. The Life Painting class under Professor Edades had 45 students, and since I was literally only a freshman among several junior students, I didn’t have any idea on basic Western painting techniques.
But Professor Edades took me under his wing, teaching and guiding me, and I learned and improved very fast.
The UST School of Fine Arts celebrated its silver anniversary in March 1955 and a Life Painting contest was held for third-year students. One of my studies won honorable mention.
In August that year, I received a special award for “Vista por la Noche,” my entry in Oil Painting to the 5th Shell National Student Art Competition. The following year, British Ambassador George Clauton bought my painting to add to his collection.
Maybe for some people these achievements mean nothing, but for me, a student from Mindanao with only one year of formal studies, they were a big encouragement.
So in 1958, I went back to Zamboanga with my paint box and, overflowing with confidence, I painted and painted. Even though I was jobless and had financial problems, I found joy in painting every day.
As the Bible says, “Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy.” This became my motto.
First solo exhibit
In January 1959, I brought 20 of my oil paintings to Manila with nothing more than P8 in my wallet. Arriving at North Harbor, I gave P2 to the waiter and paid another P2 to the cab driver who took me to the residence of my stepmother’s close friend.
China Art Gallery gave me a schedule for March 19 for my first one-man exhibit, but I did not have money to prepare.
Fortunately the Philippine Chinese Art Association was organizing the Taipei Tour Painting Exhibit and was soliciting donations from local Chinese community leaders. Whoever would find a contributor would get 30-percent commission.
On the list of prospective donors, I saw the name of Mr. Cheng, whom I knew was an art collector and a supporter of community activities. So I got the official receipt to visit Mr. Cheng, who generously contributed P500.
When I handed the money to the association, I got a P150 commission. I used the money for the frames of my paintings and to print invitations.
One day in a bookstore, I saw a guest book with a beautiful design that I wanted to buy for the exhibit. The saleslady was an old American, and she asked me what I was going to do with it, and I said I would use it for the guests of my art exhibit to sign on.
She told me that the guest book cost P30 and was too expensive. Maybe because I was just wearing the usual white shirt and old khaki pants, she thought I couldn’t afford to buy it.
“How much is one painting in your exhibit?” she asked.
I answered in a very soft voice, “Around P100.”
She was surprised. “What! P100 for one piece of painting? Are you crazy?” Her eyes were so wide and her voice so loud that I got scared.
Maybe P100 for one piece of painting was really too much. Was I really crazy?
On March 19 at 5 p.m., my first exhibit opened. Many guests arrived, but the only guest who got me excited and proud was Professor Edades. After the ribbon-cutting, he took the time to appreciate my paintings and give me his opinions.
My exhibit at China Art Gallery was covered widely in the press, with reports and reviews published by the Manila Chronicle Sunday Magazine and different English and Chinese newspapers.
Six days after the opening, the paintings were all sold out and I received the biggest income of my life: P1,150!
With such a result, I proved that I was not crazy after all.
Life-changing
Now 60 years in the art world, I always remember those early days when I went to UST and had my first painting exhibit. These two events were life-changing.
If I hadn’t pursued my dream outside of Mindanao and studied Fine Arts at UST, I would not have been a professional painter. If I hadn’t moved heaven and earth to have my first exhibit and it didn’t push through, my entire life would have been different.
From 1959 to 2012, I had 32 one-man exhibits. Every opening, many guests attended, but personally I gave out around 10 invitations. The rest of the invitations were given out by Asia Art Gallery.
As a professional painter, I have never used my paintings to ask for any help, which makes me proud when events like these happen.
Landscape painting has always been my first love. When I entered the UST School of Fine Arts, I took the Life Painting subject just to be with my friends.
But I took up the class not only to be with friends but also because every painter worth his salt should learn the basic techniques of life painting.
My classes were on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Other days I took private lessons in landscape painting under Gabriel Custodio.
From on-the-spot to creative landscape paintings, I treat each painting as a new experience. I don’t copy the surface of nature, but express my own emotion and craft my own image, along the line of what Goethe (1749-1832) said: “The thing itself without being the thing, an image focused on the mirror of the mind and yet identical with the object.”
To create a painting is to express the thought and emotion of the artist. So, as the highest standard of expression, a painting is not figurative or abstract but in between similar and dissimilar, usually passing through realistic, vivid and wonderful realms. It passes through the realm of personification and becomes the union of nature and the artist.
So therefore: “Landscape is a state of mind.” For a painter, learning is not so much a matter of training one’s hands as much as training one’s eyes. In that way, the artist develops his ideas in concrete images.
A professional painter must constantly be exploring, growing, struggling, developing. It is only after finishing more than 1,000 paintings when it can truly be said that the painter has developed his own unique style.
A painter’s success is not fortuitous.
I am a Filipino painter influenced by Chinese culture. I really feel richer by accepting both Chinese heritage and Western practice in my art.
Looking back after 60 years of painting, I realize how blessed I was for having lived in this lovely country, the Philippines. I would not have had the opportunity to learn fine arts and practice as a painter and live the life I wanted to live had I not been blessed to come to the Philippines.
Despite the difficulties and the struggles, it has been one blessed life, with Almighty God’s ever bountiful providence. It is one life lived without regret.
Visit www.jamesonglepho.com. E-mail [email protected].
