Martino “Tinong” Abellana was the icon whom the younger Cebuano artists looked up to in their pursuit of artistic fulfillment. The maestro was an excellent teacher, a good adviser, an inspiration to the students, a selfless friend and above all, a humble man.
He invited many of his students, including this writer, to go south to his hometown Carcar on Saturdays, so he could share what he learned from Fernando Amorsolo, his mentor in U.P. Diliman.
Before the fine arts course was offered at U.P. Cebu, he was the only qualified and most sought after arts professor in this part of the region. His mastery of the use of such media as oil, paint, watercolor, chalk, pastel, graphite and charcoal pencils left its mark in more of his architecture students who opted to pursue the visual arts after their college graduation.
Tinong Abellana was a master in drawing and painting. He had a wide selection of subjects: from portraits and figures done in pencils, oils and pastels, landscapes and seascapes in watercolors and oils, to still lifes done in all media.
His years of teaching the visuals in the college of architecture brought out the names of Jose “Kimsoy” Yap Jr. and Fred Galan whose mastery in watercolor techniques are now what the younger artists are hoping to absorb. In the 60s, other prominent students whose works often grabbed the prizes in local art competitions were Titing Baguio, El Allego and Caloy Saducas. But they lost the zest as they refocused their interest to architecture.
A couple of months before he died, he amusingly told us a story of how the owners of CIT felt the danger of losing architecture students to painting. They had good reason to be insecure. They happened to choose a man whose talent, ability and dignity were forever etched in the hearts and minds of the students who attended his classes.
In the middle 70s, the UPCC Fine Arts program opened the opportunity to young and “eager to learn” crop of artists. Among those who, to this day, remained loyal to the Abellana legacy are Mar Vidal and Deguilmo Adeste. These two are at ease with any subject to draw and paint.
Of course, there are countless others who were recipients of the Abellana brand of teaching whose names are ringers to this day. They may not have followed the tradition but surely what principles they learned from him are what they are sharing with their students today.
Martino “Tinong” Abellana is the greatest Cebuano visual artist. He was, yesterday... he is, today...and he will always be.