A Paean to Women
By Arnaldo Bernabe Mirasol
DAN EZEKIEL TAMAYO MACAPUGAY was born and raised in Malolos, Bulacan, to Nemencio Macapugay and Maria Delia Tamayo.. He finished his early schooling at Dakila Elementary School and Marcelo H. Del Pilar High school.
He must have inherited his artistic genes from his musician-artist father, who studied at the University of the Philippines Conservatory of Music, and was once an illustrator and now active painter.
Although growing up in their idyllic farm in Barangay Dakila in Malolos could have aroused some more that innate creativity in him, Dan revealed that growing up he doesn't take his art making seriously. It was only in 2012 that he began to see painting as a full-time career, and began regularly accepting watercolor portrait commissions. Dan had honed his skill well. Not only had he reached a high level of expertise in pencil drawing and watercolor painting, he'd also expanded his range and is now adept too in the use of acrylic and oil.
When asked if he had a personal mentor who taught him the rudiments of painting, Dan replied that he had none. He said that most of the things he knows about painting he learned from the internet - from YouTube specifically. The internet apparently plays a large part in Dan's artistic career for that is where he does promotion and selling of his works. Art Nebula, an online art supply store had even selected him as their product ambassador to help advertise their Sennelier and Raphael brand of artist brushes. That's why many of the paintings he posted on his Facebook timeline were photographed with the brushes he used beside them.
Dan had joined group art exhibits early in his career - the most notable of which are the "Art and Appetite" event at the Bonifacio Global City, the "Krusada sa Kalikasan" exhibit by the Kapentura Art Group at Artasia, and the International Watercolor Society's "Kultura: Noon at Ngayon" exhibit at the GSIS Museo ng Sining. He exhibited in those shows paintings that depict subjects that are apparently dear to him which are mostly beautiful women with mestiza features, sometimes clad and sometimes nude, and put in settings that are either natural or dream-like. Some of his paintings have surrealist overtones, but Dan denied even knowing that those were surrealist-like works. He said that the painters he admires are Juan Luna and Vermeer, who were proponents, not of the surreal and the fantastic, but of art that depicts neo-classical and genre scenes. The artist though that he admires most, and who inspired him in his art making is Nick Alm, that brilliant contemporary Swedish illustrator who switched career, and now does serious painting full time.
Now ongoing at Galerie Stephanie is "Oblivion" - Dan's first solo art exhibit. The suite of works on show of women in repose is Dan's paean to women. These sleeping women are by no means women who live a life of ease, luxury, and leisure. They are, on the contrary - though not at first glance - depictions of strong, industrious women, women on the go, who grabbed any chance presented them to gain that much needed respite from their daily grind. These women will catch a few minutes of sleep whenever and wherever they can because they know that some unfinished tasks still lie ahead for them to complete. Whoever said that women belong to the weaker sex was absurdly out of touch with reality. Women are stronger, not in any physical way, but in their grit, determination, and their capacity to endure pain of the body and emotional hurt, which could break the will and dilute the bravado of many men.
Dan has remained consistent through the years. He is still fixated on women as subject matter of his art. Although his portrait repertoire also includes males with interesting and difficult to capture in paint facial features, it is to his female subjects that he returns to again and again. Whether watercolor or oil, one can see and feel the softness imparted to the female form by the tender caresses and fluid strokes of Dan's painting brushes. A deceptive softness, that. Because hidden behind their fragile demeanor is these women's latent strength.
Comments
Post a Comment