It’s A Small World for Ray Halili

The back of the woman’s head is rendered finely with the strands of her black hair swept up in a bun. Repeated on the sleeves of her traditional dress is the motif of orchids like those found on her hair. With her nape exposed, the picture also reveals her long neck. The artist’s signature is found on the lower right corner of the picture. Just like those found in many galleries and museums, this can be any other painting. The difference is that Gregory Raymond Halili’s painting is the size of a postage stamp, usually 1 x 1 inch (or 2.5 x 2.5 centimeters).

At Halili’s recent art exhibit, his miniature paintings drew the attention of passers-by at the mall gallery. Mounted on wide mat boards and framed, the entire size of his artworks reaches up to 10 x 12 inches. This serves to emphasize the small-ness of his images. It seems this attracts viewers to go nearer and look at the paintings closely. For some it is the novelty of using magnifying lenses to be able to see the fine details of the framed art.

Entitled Nostalgia II, Halili’s second solo exhibition at the West Gallery Mega mall, ran simultaneously with his one-man show Nostalgia at the Nancy Hoffman Gallery in Soho, New York City. He is also part of a group exhibition at the Artists’ House Gallery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The artist is a New Jersey resident whose family migrated to the US when he was 12 years old. He earned an art degree from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. They used to live in the old Manila district of Sampaloc where pre-war houses were systematically torn down to make way for high-rise condominiums.

The subjects for his artwork for the Manila exhibition comprise of women, tropical flora, nocturnal landscapes and patterned curtains. These are part of his yearning for a past that he did not entirely leave behind when he took up residence in his adopted country.

Using watercolor in warm sepia and indigo blue, Halili opts to put a dark cast to depict late afternoon and moonlit evenings. He adds a veneer over his images, using screens flecked with butterflies, decorative lace curtains or the misty atmosphere of landscapes. Besides the complications arising from making miniature paintings, the swift execution required in emphasizing the transparency of watercolor makes Halili’s feat outstanding.

Miniatures were 16th and 17th-century art forms that were the popular methods of portraiture. Artists also used water-based media such as gouache or watercolor applied with fine animal hair. In Europe, one of the leading miniaturists was British Nicholas Hilliard who in 1588 wrote a textbook on the art form, Treatise on the Art of Limning. He used and suggested making brushes out of squirrel hair fitted into a quill. Trained as a goldsmith, Hilliard’s exquisite miniatures resemble the techniques used in the tradition of illuminated manuscripts. These are the first letter in books of prayers or bibles where an illustration animates the story of the text. Halili might as well have followed that textbook with his careful rendering of figures, designs and landscapes. Like Hilliard, he also does not use a magnifying glass to make his paintings as this causes alterations and overstressing of parts of his compositions.

In "Hideaway," for instance, the predominantly indigo blue view of the sky surrounded by tropical plants and trees emphasizes the dimming light of dusk. Halili would have had problems framing this atmosphere with his flora had he used the distorted lens that would have magnified his painting surface. In addition, it might have been difficult for him to create the intricate leaves accurately. This is also true of his other painting "Fragrance of Blue" where a fraction of the night sky is glimpsed from a heavily patterned floral curtain. The curve of the curtain has such a sharp edge that it will probably be hard to keep the line even if a magnifying glass refracted Halili’s view.

With the exception of a few artists, painting in miniature is now a lost art. One of the questions brought up in new art history books is why those deemed as great art have to be big, perhaps almost the size of a mural. Maybe it is the space it occupies, its imposing presence. It may also have that grand narrative, telling viewers historical or mythological stories. Some of them may bear some similar features to today’s billboards and video walls that clutter highways. Halili’s paintings point out that in our crowded, jostling world, there is still space for small images that make us stand still, look and actually see.

For more details on Nostalgia II, visit West Gallery at the Art Walk, fourth floor, SM Megamall A, Mandaluyong City, or call 634-1284. Log on to www.westgallery.net.

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