From Autodidact to Master Painter

 

Essay 64. FROM AUTODIDACT TO MASTER PAINTER

By Arnaldo Bernabe Mirasol 

AMBROCIO MALLARI is an autodidact or self-taught painter. He is that in the sense that he never studied in a fine arts school. What Mallari knows about painting he learned when he worked as an apprentice in a shop in Manila that produced movie billboards or cartelons. His uncle Perfecto Mercado brought him there when he was still in his teens. That job was a huge opportunity for a boy who used to practice drawing by bringing pencil and paper whenever he drove their carabao to the pasture to graze. Knowing that the opportunity to study in college was beyond their means, Mallari took advantage of his time in the shop to absorb the secrets of the craft. In 1975, Mallari began painting easel-sized works on canvas. It didn't take long for him to master oil painting and he was able in time to sell his paintings in galleries in Pampanga and Manila and later on, even in Hawaii.

Mallari was born in Concepcion, Tarlac on May 17, 1957. His parents are Alejandro, a farmer, and Dorotea. Artistry apparently runs in the family because Mallari has, aside from his  painter-uncle Perfecto, a daughter, Wencyl, to whom he bequeathed his artistic genes. Mallari also taught his brothers and cousins how to paint. Among those he had taught, it is Wencyl who took after Mallari the most, and displayed the same passion and flair that he had when he was her age. In 2011, when Mallari was sent by ThemeBuilders Philippines to work as mural painter in Donetsk, Ukraine, he brought Wencyl along with him. 

Mallari had joined several group art exhibits sponsored by the Department of Trade and Industry. He'd only had one solo show so far which was held just recently when he was already 65 years old. Titled, "Nostalgia: Ode to Art Journey", this show was hosted by Robinson Land Corporation (RLC) through its ARTablado program, which was envisioned to be a platform where Filipino artists from all walks of life can showcase their works. 

Mallari was awarded that exhibition grant by virtue of his winning the Grand Prize (Representational Category) in RLC's "Create 2020" art competition. His winning piece, titled "Kanlungan ng Lahi (Haven of the Race)" is a group portrait of sorts that depicts members of different Filipino ethnic groups at their serene and sartorial best. A work of near epic proportions, it portrays, in addition to more than a dozen individuals, the natural sceneries  the Philippines is famous for, and also the flora and fauna endemic to the islands. Implicit in the painting's title is the assertion that the whole Philippine archipelago is the ancestral domain not only of the christian and muslim tribes, but also of the tribes other than those, the lumads.

Kanlungan ng Lahi is the crowning piece  of Mallari's series of paintings depicting tribal women. An astounding suite, Mallari here has reached the apex of mastery that a painter can achieve. Having exhausted the possibilities of realism, it is not surprising that Mallari chose to explore a new composition format when he started another series portraying celebrities like John Lennon, Freddie Mercury, Bob Marley, and Frida Kahlo. This series is most promising, not only because it combined classical realism with pop and abstract art, but also primarily because it reveals Mallari's propensity to move out of his comfort zone in his quest for perfection, which I must say, is an attribute displayed only by true masters.