Eloy Alferez From decal artist to realist

Classic realist Cirilo "Eloy" Alferez was born on March 27, 1966 in Yutan, Naga but he grew up and has chosen to live in Jagobiao, Mandaue City where his workstation is.

He has no school-based training when it comes to painting because he described the road to get there as "struggling."

"High school graduate ra ko. Though I did aspire to be in college, I had to face the reality nga I have to prioritize work kay lisod lagi ang kinabuhi," he said in a phone interview.

He shared that in his youth, he started working at the Lucky Tableware Visayan Company in Canduman Mandaue City before this firm folded up. "My task involved preparing samples for decal stickers/glass art designs. I had to hand-paint the model before this gets being mass produced."

After that, he also served as furniture designer and art painter for Maithland Smith, Ltd. for its products' accent designs which he described to be mostly Victorian paintings.

He shifted to visual arts in 2002 under the guidance and tutelage of Mar Vidal in Mactan Island.

"Na-close man god ang factory sa Maithland furniture, nahimo kong usa sa mga accent designer contractors sa bisan asang exporter dinhi sa Cebu - basta dunay mga direct painting nga art ang item. When the trend shifted to fiberglass, stonecasting, combined with iron, ni-shift sad ko sa visual arts," he further said.

He credits fellow painter Felix Catarata as instrumental in opening a new door for him. "I began to participate in on-the-spot painting tilts. Magkuyog mi og outing hangtod nga na-meet nako si Mar Vidal who became my mentor," Alferez added.

"Hangtod sa mga painting competitions, magkuyogay na mi nila ni (Jose) Pepe Villadolid, Felix, and the rest of active artists who are now part of our group - the Nueves Art Group."

It was also learned that Alferez won 2nd place in 2002 for the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel-Lahug painting contest; 3rd prize (2007) for the Martino Abellana Annual Art Competition in Carcar; and 4th place in the Kadaugan sa Mactan (2006) painting tilt. He joined local and national group art exhibits at the SM Megamall from 2007 to 2010.

The one thing bothering him, though, aside from current concerns and issues in the visual arts market, is the constant search of local artists to represent "perfect art" on their canvases.

"Para nako, walay angay lalisan on the subject "perfect art", ma-modernist or realist man, as only God's creation is perfect art."

This promising artist is now preoccupied with figures. "I'm used to doing landscapes for, mostly, commissioned works. Lately, we did on-the-spot sketches in black-and-white in Badian with my Nueves Artists Group to also explore how far our passion could bring us," he also shared.

Alferez mentioned they enjoyed their "exercises" in Badian because each moment gave them the chance to further experiment on play-up of light, shadows and emotions plastered on faces and lives of people. "Sa landscape man god, kasagaran ipa-feng shui man na nila and they don't like the idea of dark colors and sad scenarios. Our Badian exposure was sort of liberating," he added. "As we got to depict during our sessions pain, misery and backbreaking drudgery that go with toil and labor."

Their outputs were supposed to be showcased in Manila, but had to be cancelled because of crises of sorts hounding the country. "Mingaw ang market. However, this has not stopped us from pursuing what we love to do most. We believe that right after a storm, we will always be there painting our skies with vivid colors."

His group's latest exhibit was at the City Sports Club wherein three of his works - Mango Vendor, Burnham (Baguio), and Oslob Cliff - were featured.